Been seeing a lot about how the government passes shitty laws, lot of mass shootings and expensive asf health care. I come from a developing nation and we were always told how America is great and whatnot. Are all states is America bad ?

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    When I was a teenager, yes. Visited England and their idea of a “bad neighborhood” confused me, my city at home was rough. Their rough areas were just normal places, not scary at all.

    But crime dropped here, like everywhere. It is nicer now, despite the two steps backwards we have taken lately.

    We do still have violent people, we do still have a prison-industrial complex, armed police, homeless people and way too many guns, but even here in Florida my trans kid is accepted at school, my older kids got a good education (though the last did not make it out before the attack on education) and most people are nice to each other. Inside the cities it’s nice enough, feels modern and city like. Lots of jobs, easy to find a job here.

    Health care? Yes, it’s shit here compared to a lot of places. If you are rich you can get really good care (and pay a lot for it), if not you just try to stay healthy and hope you don’t need anything expensive. Insurance, if you have it, does cover preventative care visits and usually stuff like blood pressure meds or antibiotics are cheap, vaccines too, and birth control usually covered as well. But any actual sickness or bad injury can bankrupt you.

    I do think it’s a land of opportunity, but the odds are not great, if that makes sense? Certainly one can ‘make it’ here - think of Bill Clinton becoming president - I don’t think that kind of social mobility is everywhere, it’s a little less sticky here, more rising and falling going on than most places.

    • iByteABit [he/him]@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      (though the last did not make it out before the attack on education)

      I didn’t get that, what do you mean?

      it’s a little less sticky here, more rising and falling going on than most places

      How easy is it to go from working minimum wage to a well paying job if you can’t afford education to acquire a specialization?

      Also say you go bankrupt and homeless because of some bad luck with your health leading to astronomical hospital bills. Is it even possible to recover from that and get back to an average life quality when covered with debt?

      • RBWells@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        My first set of kids got a great K-12 education here, in stark contrast to what I experienced. But sadly, one is still in high school and the state is attacking freedom of speech, teachers are leaving, the classes are getting dumbed down.

        I did go from cashier to good office job but pell grant covered my college. Bright Futures is covering my kids college. No, we don’t do a great job of supporting kids through school, it took effort. There are still union trade jobs that pay well too though, even here.

        Medical system I make no apology for. It’s awful.