So I’m driving to church on a Sunday night around 4pm and I manage to get stuck in the flow of people coming back to LA from their Thanksgiving weekend vacations. It was a looooong row of SUV’s as far as the eye could see! An occasional RV was in the mix as well but the VAST majority of vehicles on the road were SUV’s. It’s not that uncommon to see here in LA. There everywhere. Any family that can afford one (and many that can’t) will jump at the opportunity to own some big steel people mover. No matter of the price of gas, or the negative press the SUV get’s, people just WANT them! It’s yet another sign of our prosperity here in America.
America is full of prosperity. Our poor here struggle with being overweight! How does that happen?! Most families CAN afford an SUV. The most popular selling SUV is the Hummer! Not only are we the most powerful military in the world, we’re the only one that can afford to have one! Why is it we don’t hear about immigration problems with other countries? Because most people want to come HERE! Here is where your status in society is based on wealth alone. You can be white, black, Asian, male, female, gay, straight, good, evil… It doesn’t matter. Wealth is what makes you important here. Wealth is what get’s you better homes, health care, lawyers, schools, etc. -and that’s the way it is. If you don’t like it, go to Europe. If you want a better experience here in America, make more money! The amazing thing is that just about anyone with determination can make it here. You don’t even need to speak English that well (just ask our current Governor). Where else will you have an environment of opportunity like this? It’s hard not to see all the prosperity around me as I go about my daily life. Even the average house price in the state of California is around $400,000. That’s the AVERAGE people! But even in states such as Alabama, average houses are still approaching $200,000. There are few houses in metro areas around the country that are under $100,000. That means that if you want to live in one of these places, you’d best get a decent job and make some money. What would your incentive be if housing was cheaper? I know my incentive wouldn’t be there if I wasn’t living in LA. I hardly think I’d be planning to start my own business if my house was still only worth the $65,000 we first paid for it…
I guess I’m just fed up with people poo pooing this country and it’s incredible amount of success. There is nothing wrong with being successful or prosperous. Big companies are big because they are successful, not evil. Wealthy people usually get there by hard work and clevar ingenuity (aside from those few who just inherit wealth). Just think, banks now offer free checking accounts. There was a time when that would have been a hilarious thought. But once one company started offering it, all the others had to try and keep up -that’s how cool capitalism can be sometimes. Now most all banks have to learn how to make a living without charging for a simple checking account service.
Ok, I’m rambling now. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to put all these thoughts to a coherent dissertation. In the mean time, if you’ve managed to read this far, I apologize for my unorganized thinking!