For years I wanted to live in the US. Not that there was anything wrong with Australia but the US seemed lively, exciting and certainly where all the action was.

On reflection I can now see why I was so stupid and naive.

Despite all the great things the US has done, and there's a lot of them, and what it has to offer (even despite the years of George W. Bush), there are some very profound issues I have with the US.

1. Capitalism: now don't get me wrong here - I'm a capitalist through and through but the American system is so warped that it is to Capitalism what Mao's China was to Communism: heartless, extreme, lacking compassion and very doctrinaire. It's all about sink or swim.

You can't tell me the the alleged richest country in the world can't support its poor, uneducated, jobless and disadvantaged? It's not that they can't, but their form of Capitalism is about excess, hedonism and the accumulation of excessive wealth - regardless of its impact on society. Surely it's only a matter of time before their society will be in upheaval - or collapse. It seems like the Roman Empire all over again.

2. Health System. Obama is certainly on the right track here but the Neanderthal Right just won't give in.

3. Gun Laws: the world watches in open-mouthed disbelief at the sheer idiocy of Americans who extol their right to own arms and then cry in anguish as some pimple-faced teen guns down a classroom of helpless students with a semi-automatic rifle. This is not freedom - but rather enslavement to a doctrine without understanding, or being prepared to understand its implications - a vicious and stupid treadmill that Americans are too stupid to get off.

4. The legal system and its litigious nature: Sheer idiocy - but because it's spreading from the US to the rest of the world, we are all suffering from the inaccessibility to the law and fair legal process.

5. The Evangelical Right: I do not see the difference between the radical Evangelical Right and the Muslim radicals, except that the Evangelicals appear to have enormous influence in Washington. Scary stuff.

6. Debt. As long as Americans continue to live beyond their means, the more likely that the day of 'come-uppance' will arrive. My advice to the US: don't piss off the Chinese because they'll pull the plug on the US debt - even if they hurt a bit in the process. It's only a matter of time.

Of course, if Americans woke up to their reality, they'd increase their taxes for a few years and eliminate their indebtedness - but they won't do that since increased taxes contravenes their Capitalist, right-wing ethos of wealth maximisation, living to excess and small government. 

They seem incapable of understanding the difference between "common good" and "individual rights"; between "the activities of government" and "responsible government"; between "government helping to facilitate the economy" and "the government interferring in individual economic rights." 

They're free of course to do what they want - but don't expect the rest of the world to feel sorry for them when the shit hits the fan - as it will.

It's my view that history will show that the American empire started it's decent when George W. Bush came to the throne. Since then, the capitalists have been, like Nero, fiddling and gorging themselves on the excesses of a distressed society. We can only imagine what the epilogue will say!


Postscript 18 January 2011: I received this anonymous comment: "THEN KEEP YOUR SORRY ASS IN AUS?" .... and that ladies and gentlemen, is why the US is in the state it's in. A group of redneck fascists who don't understand that other people have legitimate opinions about things they don't agree with. Not only are they quite infantile on matters to do with taxation, economic revival, gun laws, medical services, education, business, politics, culture, etc; they are also profoundly arrogant (a generalisation of course). 


There are many US citizens who say that we are not Americans therefore we are not entitled to comment on the US. Fair enough except that US capitalism, entertainment, and culture is imposing itself on the rest of the world and profiting by it. While that happens, we in the rest of the world have a right to express our opinion about those influences being "imposed" on us that are harming our culture, environment and context.