the misery which is the USA

I see in my parents' cluttered home a perfect representation of the failure of the USA as a country--not its failure as a "military power" or its failure to dominate the economy of the world---but its failure to be a good place to live. For, even during the heyday of American capitalism the USA did not provide a rich life of culture and sociality. On the contrary, the life of the citizen of the USA is lonely.

My father has purchased extra t-shirts, extra toilet seats, and countless other objects which now fill this house to overflowing. Then, again, there are my mother's collection of used bottles and jars, and various mysterious items in her kitchen, all serving to create clutter, clutter which is actually dangerous for two frail people who need to move about with walkers.

My parents are old and really cannot take care of themselves. They are isolated. Children and childhood friends are far away. And my mother and father are drowning in all the consumerist crap which this miserable society provided for them----not meaningful relationships with other people, not the sort of health care they really need, but clutter from consumerist crap. That is the United States of America----and that problem is wholly separate from the current so-called crisis.

And why is crap readily available? Because the capitalist class, the one-tenth of one percent who are in charge get richer by selling it to the rest of us. No other reason. Not because we really want it or need it, but because it's part of a system designed to exploit and use us for the benefit of a small group of undeserving people.

The system never worked. And the current problems are only the latest version of the misery which it creates.