All About Trey

Replanting the American Dream (Part II)

It's not enough that we need to make some serious changes to improve the US's reputation around the world. We need to make serious changes to improve the United States itself.

How many people in the United States:

• are homeless right now?
  
• are hungry?
  
• have no health insurance?
• have no job?
• have more than one job just to make ends meet?

These are just basic questions that characterize life in America. I don't know the exact answers by the way. I'm sure you could look them up somewhere. But the answer is the same. It's too many. Too many people are not living the American dream right now.

President Henry Hoover made the claim, "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." Not a bad standard to measure posperity by. He said that over 70 years ago, and we still aren't there. Sure there have been a lot of improvements in our standard of living as a whole, but not in our standard of living for everyone. This isn't an averages thing. I have three chickens and the next two families have none, so it averages out to a chicken in every pot. That's not the way it works. Tell that to the family who has nothing to eat.

We need to do something, as a nation, to change it. And no I don't think it's the government's responsibility to fix everything, but I do think the government needs to stop pushing tax breaks on oil companies that are making record breaking profits and maybe channel some of the money for health care for children, or for foodstamps, or for job training.

As we march into this season of love, giving, and absolute materialism, we should all try to stop and think about what we can do to help make a change, to make a difference, to help build a better American.

(p.s. I promise a fun, light, posting later this week.)

posted by Trey @ 12:17 PM