This is kinda random but I've been thinking about it and wanted to write it out.
Lately I've seen a lot of Tiktok videos, and heard commentary from people, shaking their heads over the state of America. A lot of folks seem to think we're now a 3rd world country.
We're not.
Our health care sucks, sure. Our politics suck right now. Stuff is expensive.
But sit with me for a sec and let's consider what we DO have.
WATERIf I want to bathe myself, I can do it ANY time. There is clean tap water available 24/7 whether I'm home or traveling. I don't have to go to a public space, or wait in a queue to get fresh water, or find a natural source.
Not only that, I can choose the TEMPERATURE of my water.
Not only that, I can stay in the shower
for as long as I like. Do you know how many people do not have that absolute luxury?
Who get a RATION of clean water, and have to make it last for themselves and their families?
Who have to travel miles to get water at all, and then carry it back?
Who can only bathe sparingly?
FOODIf I am hungry and don't have food in the house, literally all I need to do is step outside, and there is
some kind of food within a mile. Not only that, I have an incredible choice of nearly any type of food at any moment whether in season or not. At this very moment as I'm typing this, if I wanted a pineapple, a whole raw octopus, a Japanese beer, and a hot plate of just-cooked African food,
I could have every single one of those things within an hour. The very most I'd have to wait for any of that would be day or two if I had to order some of them. ORDER THEM! I don't even need to find those things myself...I can pay someone to gather them and bring them to me!
In the context of human history, can we take a moment to marvel at the absolutely stunning privilege, wealth, and economic power of that?
Meanwhile there are pictures leaking out of children who are skin and bones in Gaza.
But I can pay someone to drive me to Whole Foods--which at all times has in stock nearly every vegetable, fruit, grain, spice, or meat you could think of gathered from every country around the globe--and from all of that bounty I can select pancake-flavored rice crackers that have almost no nutritional value, eat them, and say, "Meh, they were ok but I wouldn't buy them again."
And I have the GALL to say America is a 3rd world country???
HEALTH CAREAdmittedly we've got terrible health care, and I'm not gonna TOUT our health care.
However we do HAVE health care.
If you need a doctor, yes, you have to make an appointment or get to a clinic. You might have to wait for hours, but rarely a whole DAY, and usually in a relatively clean waiting room with access to water, snacks, chairs, restrooms, and climate control. When you ARE seen, it might be in a somewhat dated room or with dated equipment, but 99% of the time you can safely assume that the stethoscope is clean, the needle is new, and any medication, equipment, or therapy you're prescribed will be readily available. If you need an additional scan like an MRI, you may have to wait days or months to get it...
but you will still get it. You don't have to walk miles to see a doctor, and then wait days in a tent to actually be seen. AND THEN be seen but with outdated half-broken equipment, expired medications, or in unsanitary conditions, which any volunteer with Doctors Without Borders can tell you is the reality for millions of people around the world. You don't have to hear that you need an MRI and therefore there's nothing they can do for you
because there isn't an MRI machine in that country.Our health care is not great...but it's THERE.
TRAVELIf I want to go to China right now, I can.
Do you know how powerful an American passport is?If I wanted to visit my sister in Colorado 1800 miles away, there is nothing to stop me from being there in either a few hours or a few days.
Despite the massive size of our country, it is possible to hop in a car and know with certainty that you will be able to find fuel, food, fresh water, and places to rest nearly anywhere you decide to go within the United States.
Do we have a bullet train, no. Is our infrastructure dated, yes.
Are we still fully capable of traveling absolutely massive distances with nothing to stop us, thanks to our personal freedoms and that dated infrastructure and the availability of transportation in general? YES.
--- --- --- --- --- --- I will stop here, but there are MANY other categories where we could stand to sit back and consider how privileged (spoiled) we are compared to MANY other people in the world.
I have been thinking about this, as I travel throughout the United States on fast and powerful aircraft; as I unpack my bags in hotel after hotel that is clean, with hot running water and a refrigerator and climate control. As I pay someone to take me to specific grocery stores with the most exotic and rare foods, not just the essentials, and how I don't even think for a moment that the grocery store might not have something that I need, because that is UNFATHOMABLE in my very, VERY privileged world.
As I'm out here doing a dream job, earning and spending money, eating, and meeting people...
...I am thinking about this. Deliberately.
Because we are NOT a 3rd world country. We are SPOILED and JADED to think so for even a moment.
It is understandable to be DISGUSTED with the way things are in our country: health care, education, food access, etc.
It is OK and natural to want things to be better.
But I wanted to write this out because there is so much complaining, and not enough of that context to open our eyes and make us APPRECIATE the incredible lives we are able to live, because of WHERE we live.