The American dream is idealism. It’s exceptionalism. We’re pretty good, but we ain’t the best in the metrics that really matter. Education & healthcare being two of the most obvious. I don’t think that this is true that everyone wants to be mega rich, but it’s more true everyone wants to be self-sufficient and the opposite of that is seen as evil. You did it to yourself if you’re not self-sufficient. Come on! That’s not true. If it is true, then I have known a lot of people on drugs that had a great childhood full of love and empathy and they got all their needs met by their parents. I’ve seen disabled people fly away from the circumstances they find themselves in. I’ve never seen adults living with their parents because they can’t afford to live on their own. I’ve never seen a slum or a street full of boxes and made up shelters.
The following is the truth. I’ve never seen anyone get all that they deserve or deserve all they get. Good or bad. Or at least that’s a behind the scenes principle I feel is present.
If you deserve all the prosperity and wealth that comes to you and it’s God ordained, then it must be true that those that get all the poverty and desperation deserve it and it’s God ordained. This is a false dichotomy to prove a point. No one deserves all that they get.
edit: living with your parents isn’t bad, there are other reasons to stay with your first support other than money.
America assumes if you need help from the government, then you did it to yourself. You are undeserving of empathy and you deserve the bad things that are coming to you. Everyone is assumed to be taking advantage and the public trust must be guarded at all costs. Making the regulations on the poor almost insurmountable and making assistance hard to find. People are kicked out of the hospital because they don’t have insurance! How is the public trust being served by greed and guarded pessimism?
I’d rather a hundred people be helped that don’t need it and one person that truly does than the opposite of that. A hundred people taking advantage and only one person truly needs it. The American attitude is all these strong men are carrying the weak and undeserving and IT’S HAS TO STOP! The strong rich men are being taking advantage! Do I need to point out sarcasm?
You see this in the prosperity gospel. God gives good things to those he loves. You’re not rich or healthy? God doesn’t love you or God is going to completely heal you. This is bull shit. I’m done.
No, I guess I’m not … AND if you’re good you deserve to go to heaven more than those that were bad (i.e. not self-sufficient). Everyone says stuff in jest of well, I’m going to heaven because I did this thing or I’m going to hell because I’m a bad bad person with bad bad thoughts and I made a joke about dead babies and I’m going to hell. Anyway, this thought isn’t true i.e. We earn our way to heaven, but we all deserve hell. That’s what the Bible says (Romans 6:23 & 3:23) and now I’m wondering if that makes sense to me anymore. If I understand it. Is that saying we all deserve eternal punishment or just that just that we’ve all sinned?
I’ve felt that this attitude is on full display most in people that believe in the One that paid the price. It’s subtle. They voted for the prosperity gospel and now we have a demagogue president AGAIN. We deserve what we vote for. It’s true because every Trump voter in the end, the last argument given is, “well, I was richer/better off under Trump.” and that trumps everything. Pun intended. Can’t argue with that. Mainly because I don’t know your circumstance. But does you being richer mean a better society as a whole? We all want to be self-sufficient, but a “self-sufficient is best” attitude has led to a poor society.
The following is a sentence I like, but I don’t know where it goes in this messy essay … You also can see it with the statements to public servants (police and fire) when some butthole says “my taxes pay your salary.” Give me a break. Is it yours or is it public?