United States of Suffering

This was something I’ve wanted to write about for some time now. I noticed back a year ago that America has entered a regression of economic and social conditions similar to underdeveloped nations, only with a few contrary circumstances.

An article came out in the Independent on the 21st of April 2017. An MIT Economist made the claim in that article that the U.S. has regressed to developing nation status. I'd go further by claiming it has passed that status.

The USA is the leading country in child poverty, and leads in incarcerating the most prisoners per-capita. We have polluted the drinking water of many cities, the worse being Flint, Michigan. We are abusing Native Americans in the interest of oil corporations. We have ignored the pollution of water and land from dangerous oil extraction. We use the process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) oil from the ground and ignore the risks of pollution of the water table. We gut the funding for schools, medical, and Social Security just so we have extra money to fund the military industrial complex, and give un-necessary tax breaks to the wealthy. We watch as our basic human rights are violated right in front of our eyes. We watch minorities get harassed, shot, or imprisoned without a second thought. We make excuses for women being raped. We don't have paid maternity leave. Working class anger and riots are met with abuse by the state apparatus, and rage by the bootlickers. The civilian population is divided, and at one another’s throats. We are using soldiers like pawns to kill and rob the natural resources of other nations. We lie to the workers to push fear and justify our war crimes and imperialism. Kids in high school join the military, told it will help their education and financial future. Foreclosed houses remain empty as homeless people struggle to survive in the streets. Ghettos are impoverished hell holes where crime is the only survival option. Racism is institutional. Our businesses are giant monopolies. We have trillions in debt and even our civilians have large sums of debt. Our infrastructure is crumbling and degraded to C, D, or below by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Public Works Association.

America is a third world nation with iPhones, a third world nation with fancy technology. Like the Tsar Nicolas II during the First World War in Russia. We are a large nation that has left its working class struggling to survive, while we branch our imperialist claws across the world, using the “Monroe doctrine” to justify manifest destiny. The difference is we have stolen so much that our reach is global, from one continent to the next. We have a bad addiction, stealing the resources around the world, while selling our image as luxurious, and likening it to heaven on earth, while our impoverished live in hell. We tell the world we have the most amazing cities, yet ignore the homeless who sleep in the streets or the bridges, highways, and neighborhoods that have cracks and erosion from years of neglect. We sell our image as a lie to make ourselves look good. This is a recipe of disaster.

The reformists speak as if this capitalist barbarity is a reversible situation. No, not even close! Capitalism can't be reformed. Capitalism places profit over life. It will expand its profits via exploitation. Capitalists care nothing for the workers who must feed their families, no matter how much it forces workers to work to the bone. And we do this while many capable workers are idle and many are homeless. Capitalism will expand its profits through its highest stage, imperialism. It will destroy any attempt to put workers’ lives over profit. Thus, reformism is a blatant lie because it gives workers false hope. A scientific socialist revolution is the only option for the working class, even more so today than ever.