Dear America
You are the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. That is what we are taught, but it appears you are anything but.
In the USA “A kid without a cent, can grow up, to be President” as Holly Johnson said. This is constantly banded about with misty-eyed sentiment despite the demonstrable lack of evidence to support it.
I apologise because we in the UK thought you were far more civic minded and fair than you are. I feel we should let you know the misconceptions we held.
Leaving aside the fact you are currently having mass riots, a race war, a despotic leader who openly denounces democracy and says he will not concede when his foul and repulsive carcass is destroyed on November 4th, and it is possible that the Civil War will soon be known as “Civil War I” there are more specific standards of decency and treatment of people we always presumed you had.
First: We know you do not have free healthcare but are led to believe that if you pay medical insurance then you get treatment when required. We figured that a garnished wage of a manageable amount would be used and you would get the treatment you need. Which would be a fair idea, no?
We did not realise that it was a great deal more than that for a great deal less. According to the The Kaiser Family Foundation. "Employer Health Benefits 2019 Annual Survey, the average cost for a family of four exceeds $20,000 a year. For many folk, around 70% is picked up by employers. This may sound great but remember that this still leaves six grand a year to find. Also the medical contribution is the reason cited by companies as to why so many have not had a pay rise in nearly a decade. So you can see it is not only misleading but also a false economy. Add to that there are a lot of unemployed people and self-employed too. They get nothing and have to wing it. A relative of mine from New York is in debt for hundreds of thousands for life saving operations and agony-reducing drugs. It was not for many things either. It adds up quickly.
There is a massively inflated list price for all drugs and procedures in the USA. As any who work in merchanting or wholesale will know, list prices are never charged to anyone for anything. They are a very high amount used as a place to apply discounts. In the USA the companies get the discount, the people don't. Despicable.
A quick footnote: anyone reading this that is going to mention Trump and his photoshoot medical executive order farce from July, please remember, this is an imbecile free blog.
Subsidies and exemptions other factors make this a minefield. Many people are not capable of understanding this process and end up suffering and dying because they are not as clerically competent as others. The system stinks and is the clearest divide between social groups I have ever seen. One half gets better, the other half gets nothing. The latter half is growing, and the former half doesn’t give a shit. As this is the most upsetting point, I thought it should come first
Second: We thought you had rights in the workplace. In the UK if you have worked somewhere for two years, they have to go through a lengthy, fair, and neutrally supervised process to fire an employee. Not to say there are not imperfections but what most people in the UK probably don’t realise is that you guys have nothing.
In America you can have worked somewhere fifteen years and just like in American Beauty and many other flicks they can fire you in two minutes, or five if you have them. The US populace deserves better.
Also we should not forget the PAYE system we have in the UK (Pay As You Earn). If we are directly employed, we do not do our own taxes. Our employer does it for us. A priviledge that most who enjoy it have never known any different. Millenials in the UK would literally melt if they had to do that for themselves. We really do not know how lucky we are here.
Finally: I come to civil liberties. The fourth and fifth amendments provide a right to be protected from illegal search and due process. Fine words but an absolute load of conkers.
In the well-known recent case of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old woman shot to death in her home by police, we find a perfect example of the constitution being a fictional script.
The police used what is known as a “no knock warrant” that allows police to enter the home without warning. Just read that again. It allows the police to enter the home WITHOUT WARNING. Where is the amendment for that?
Even if you are one of these ones that masturbates over the constitution when it suits them and uses logic and temperance when it doesn’t, you can’t justify that. If it was Usama bin Laden or Hannibal Lector I might look the other way. This was a medical examiner with no prior convictions and no narcotics were found in her home. Oh of course the police said they knocked. Whatever. Even if they did, this unarmed, innocent and clean young professional still ended up riddled with bullets.
So while I could go on with more examples, America, I hope you accept our mistake. Of course, it is understandable when you see how much some folks in the UK whine about being oppressed. Laughable when you see how much we get over here and how little you do. Yet yours is the country that is cited as “the new world” and all that bobcat.
Of course one factor is that you have an evil dangleberry leading you. A lying sociopath who tells his country to mainline poison and then claims it was sarcasm. As if that was some form of acceptable alternative. Even if it were true, which it wasn’t as he is the worst liar on the planet. You do not need to be Christopher Walken in True Romance to spot his bullshit. Many forget he tried to stop Muslims from entering the US. If you say that is a good thing, this article is not for you.
So do us a deal, get rid of the bloated tangerine and we will promise to learn more and get our insights aligned?
Deal?