America Is No Longer The Free World. What Will Change This?
Capitalism and misunderstood economics led to fascism, destroying freedom.
In 2018, we saw more women, and women of color in particular, getting elected to Congress than ever before in the history of America. That’s progress. It suggests there is hope. But, unfortunately, any progressive movement needs enough strength to stop America’s free fall to the dark ages and generate momentum to pull the nation forward, back to the definition of the free world.
A subpar understanding of economics and history has led to the collapse of freedom and a surge in fascist (nationalist) beliefs.
Fascism finds a place when imbalances run high in society. This is exactly what has happened to America. Economic imbalances have become so pronounced that the ultra rich are richer than ever and the ever expanding poor work their lifetime to make the rich richer.
What does economics have to do with fascism and political backwardness? Everything. Capitalism, particularly unchecked growth of it, has demolished the middle class in America. The average American is in deep debt, cannot pull off $1k in emergency savings, and has to work an entire lifetime to pay their bills, education, car, house. The average American is lucky to avoid any major health setbacks.
It is astonishing that the nation that once taught the world to dream big, is now battling economic imbalances and societal beliefs that resemble the 1930s!
Shortly after World War II, the US led the creation of the World Bank and United Nations — two pillars of investment for a global future that focused on economic progress and peace. The grief, suffering, pain, and scars left by the wars led to international collaboration towards a vision of coexistence and a better world. We did think big. We did build an infrastructure for the betterment of the overall world.
At the same time, American capitalism saw independent glorified growth that led to greed and selfishness, increasing imbalances and crushing the mentality of investing in our collective future. Every person and entity only invested in their own future, walled off from the common and the collective. This led to massive growth of the Walmarts, the Apples and the GEs, but did nothing to invest in the collective future of America.
Capitalism created a society that was unwilling to invest in the collective future, leading to islands of riches and an imploding middle class.
Another disservice America did to itself is in how history is imparted to the youth of our country. Elementary schools focus on state level history for the most part, peppered with some US national history here and there. World history is left out to be handled much later, as late as in high school in some cases. Any education about the world wars is imparted from the perspective of the US positions rather than a comprehensive and impartial view of facts. This ensures that the lessons that we must have learned from history are washed away and our youth are left to relearn those lessons for themselves.
Our youth are being deprived of the lessons about economic evolution and impacts as a result of a poor history curriculum in schools.
We should NOT have to relearn the lessons of economic imbalances on society in 2019.
We should NOT have to relearn that an investment in the collective future is an investment that includes us and our children.
The average American that can afford it, checks off a box for contribution by giving to charity every once in a while. They also see investments in collective future as charity rather than as investments in their own future.
Healthcare for all is an investment. It is not charity. However, the average American is led to believe that universal healthcare is equivalent to charity.
Free education is an investment. It is for a future where educated rational minds can make decisions that affect our country.
I have not touched upon religion and racism — two factors accelerating America’s free fall into the dark ages — here. I’ll leave that for a future discussion.
But for now, if we must stop this free fall, we must embark on grassroots level education. People like AOC are proving it can be done. The change will come because more people like her are ready to be noncompliant and are ready to work hard to spread the message of the importance of investment in the collective future of America!
