Friday, June 04, 2004
Home Again!
After another weekend sailing I packed my bags - well, what I could fit in them - and headed home. The trip was really good. Somehow I got an "ecomony plus" seat which had plenty of leg room, so I had a comfortable trip.
So that was the grand old USA. Very pretty at this time of the year, particularly as in most areas houses are not fenced, which makes it all look like a giant park. People plant lots of annuals when the snow goes away, which makes it even prettier.
Yes, very pretty, nice people, but I wouldn't want to live there. It's very much a "me first" society, and Americans admit to that.
There is very little consideration for people born into unfortunate circumstances and little is done to give the children much hope of improvement. People object to paying higher taxes which may be used to help those in need. This is in a country where almost everyone I met was a churchgoer.
Schools and police forces are locally financed, which means a poor community cannot afford to hire good teachers or policemen. Some towns do not have a police force at all and are supervised by State Police.
Many employers provide health insurance as part of the pay package, but this is not the case for 45 million Americans, who have to fund their own insurance at something like $1300 month, which of course they can't afford. They are covered by a Medicare type arrangement, which has a stigma attached to it.
It seems to be a common opinion that these people should have gone to College (Uni)then they wouldn't be in their poor situation. The fact that they didn't have the brains to do it, or that their parents couldn't afford it doesn't seem to be relevant - the parents should have gone to college, too!
All cars have to have comprehensive insurance - at least 4 times the price of ours.
They also have to pay insurance for their old age care if they want to have any hope of getting into a nursing home.
Well, they do have one really good law - in West Virginia - it is now legal to eat roadkill. There never was a law saying that it was illegal!
So that was the grand old USA. Very pretty at this time of the year, particularly as in most areas houses are not fenced, which makes it all look like a giant park. People plant lots of annuals when the snow goes away, which makes it even prettier.
Yes, very pretty, nice people, but I wouldn't want to live there. It's very much a "me first" society, and Americans admit to that.
There is very little consideration for people born into unfortunate circumstances and little is done to give the children much hope of improvement. People object to paying higher taxes which may be used to help those in need. This is in a country where almost everyone I met was a churchgoer.
Schools and police forces are locally financed, which means a poor community cannot afford to hire good teachers or policemen. Some towns do not have a police force at all and are supervised by State Police.
Many employers provide health insurance as part of the pay package, but this is not the case for 45 million Americans, who have to fund their own insurance at something like $1300 month, which of course they can't afford. They are covered by a Medicare type arrangement, which has a stigma attached to it.
It seems to be a common opinion that these people should have gone to College (Uni)then they wouldn't be in their poor situation. The fact that they didn't have the brains to do it, or that their parents couldn't afford it doesn't seem to be relevant - the parents should have gone to college, too!
All cars have to have comprehensive insurance - at least 4 times the price of ours.
They also have to pay insurance for their old age care if they want to have any hope of getting into a nursing home.
Well, they do have one really good law - in West Virginia - it is now legal to eat roadkill. There never was a law saying that it was illegal!
