An Era Of Humanity
America revolutionized the automobile, invented the internet, defeated tyranny around the world, walked on the moon, and drove robots on the surface of Mars. It is home to many of the world's best universities, brightest minds, innovative companies, and exceptional artists.
We love to declare that America is the greatest nation in the world. We are the wealthiest, most powerful, and most influential country, but that overshadows the struggles many Americans deal with every day.
70% of the world’s population has universal healthcare, but not Americans. The United States is the only highly developed nation without it. Our healthcare is the most costly in the world. It is twice as expensive as the average wealthy nation while being the worst-performing among them. America ranks 49th in life expectancy, behind Cuba, 54th in infant mortality, top five in cancer rates, and last among 19 industrial nations for deaths that could be prevented with timely access to healthcare.
Congress could solve this tomorrow. Universal healthcare improves access, saves lives, and costs less. So why is America such an outlier? Because those who make it rich from our broken system don’t want it fixed. Healthcare lobbyists spent over $700 million in 2020, up from $300 million in 2000. Politicians feel more beholden to those funding their campaigns than the citizens they are meant to represent.
770,000 Americans are homeless, including 150,000 children under the age of 18. How much would it cost us to solve this issue? One study determined that ending homelessness would cost $11 to $30 billion annually.
That sounds like a lot, but the 2024 US budget was $6.75 trillion. $30 billion is 0.4% of that. The military budget is a staggering $825 billion. Congress increased the military budget by $27 billion in 2024 and will do so by a similar amount in 2025. America has the most powerful fighting force in the world. We have the strongest alliances. The next highest military spending by a nation is less than one-third of America’s. The military continues to fail audits, and we have multiple reports showing how badly contractors inflate prices to enrich themselves. When does taking care of our citizens finally outweigh the never-ending bloat of our military, especially at a time when the US is not directly involved in any wars?
Over 42 million Americans, more than 12.5% of the US population, rely on federal food assistance. Most recipients are working, have recently worked, or will work again soon. They face transitory problems in a country where people aren’t paid a proper living wage for an honest day’s work.
Worker productivity has continually climbed over the last 60 years, but wages have not. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, well below its peak in 1968. It hasn’t increased for 15 years despite cumulative inflation over that time of more than 35%. Again, Congress could solve the minimum wage if they wanted to, but corporations fund political campaigns, and CEOs like being able to buy yachts that are so enormous they come with another smaller yacht while paying their workers so little that they require federal assistance to survive.
Other nations are solving societal issues that America pretends are too complicated or expensive. Instead of providing a guaranteed minimum income, guaranteed housing, and healthcare, we listen to politicians blame immigrants, laziness, equal opportunity, and even higher education for our problems to distract from the simple truth that it is corporate greed, wealth inequality, and special interests.
People should not suffer needlessly while the world’s richest man receives billions in federal subsidies and government contracts. Students shouldn’t go hungry while the same politicians who say free school lunches are too expensive award billions to shady private schools through the latest iteration of the school vouchers scam called “school choice.”
America has had an industrial age, a progressive era, and a space age—all periods when the nation focused on accelerating progress. It is time for America to have an era of humanity where people matter more than corporations, and the needs of the many are seen as more important than the wealth of a few.
Solving poverty, hunger, homelessness, and healthcare is entirely possible. Doing so would bring prosperity to the entire nation. But politicians will never do this on their own. They need to be pressured by those who wield the true power in our democracy: you, me, and every other citizen.
If we demand a higher minimum wage and vote against the politicians who oppose it, the minimum wage will rise. If we demand healthcare to be a human right, not a privilege, it will become one. And if we demand that no American should have to go hungry or sleep on the streets, no one will have to.
The American people have forgotten that we have the power to create change. It is time to use that power and say that we will relentlessly push for a better, more equitable nation until every child, grandparent, and hard-working American has a place to sleep, food to eat, and the medical care they need.
It is time to remind the billionaires, corporations, and special interests that America is, and always will be, a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people.
https://www.sciotoanalysis.com/news/2024/1/16/what-would-it-cost-to-end-homelessness-in-america
