I was looking for the best example of what is wrong with America before you say "if you don't like it leave" how about instead we try to improve it since we're not even in the top 10 in many categories including health care (America's is the best in the world IF you can afford it), education, income mobility (that's right "socialist" countries have better income mobility) and more. There are many, many things we can do to improve this country but I want to looks at the best example of what I see as a huge problem in America and that's the babying and welfare of the elite class.
August 1, 2007 - I-35W in Minnesota collapses killing 13 and injuring over 100 because like many roads and bridges in America they are below standard and in need of serious repair. This like many of the sub standard infrastructure is not getting fixed because according to republicans "we are broke and can not afford it". Republicans refuse to raise taxes to fund infrastructure but on Aug. 30th 2007 there was a huge ceremony on the breaking of ground for the new Minnesota Twins baseball stadium and how was this funded? If you didn't figure it out it was by raising taxes, the taxes raised over 1 billion dollars for the project that helped build a new stadium for the Twins.
I can understand why they needed public funding since the owner of the Twins was only the 107th richest person in the united states with a worth of over 2.6 billion dollars. The NFL (which made 10 billion dollars in revenue last year) alone has used over 5 billion dollars in taxpayer money for new stadiums since 1997 and lets not forget the NFL is a non profit organization so their corporate offices don't pay any taxes.
Remember the next time your taxes go up so you can support the building of a new stadium for a billionaire that you probably can't even afford to sit in that we don't have the money for new roads and bridges and that many drivers put their lives on the line day in and day out driving on these outdated and dangerous bridges. Lets not forget while we're handing these rich people tax cuts, new stadiums and handouts in the billions we're cutting food stamps, health insurance for children and laying off teachers, police and fireman while cutting their pensions or closing schools.
It's only welfare when poor people get it