We gotten accustomed to using that phrase "the richest country in the world," but beginning about the year 2000, I found my students (mostly poor, mostly first generation college students, in the coal fields of Kentucky), did not believe that the U.S. actually was a "rich country". They understood that there were rich individuals, in fact they actually believed that wealth was more widely spread than it was (is). But they had all completely bought into the Republican talking points that had dominated politics for most of their lives: wealth belonged to individuals, not to the country, and that our government was spending beyond its means and needed to cut spending. This didn't mean that
THEY didn't want or expect things from the government (Pell grants, job opportunities, Headstart, WIC, public colleges, lower tuition, etc.). They and the people they knew were deserving of help, and often didn't get it, but most of those others (not just racial and ethnic differences, but people in cities, people in the flat lands) were asking for too much, and the government was spending too much, and taxing too much. They were (and I suspect still are) quite clear that the US was NOT a wealthy country, just a place where individuals who were lucky and worked super hard could become wealthy.
It was and still is sad to me that they do not see this as a country who can afford to build big things (like dams, bridges, highway systems, or even good public education systems), they don't have the big dreams for making the world a better place through the actions of government that I and my friends had in the 1960's.
Amazing ! Thank you Bonnie
Thank you, Gwen, for the restack. I appreciate it. Amazing isn’t it, that in this day and age, people are hungry in America.
This is beautiful and enlightened, thanks ma!
Thank you, Femi. Glad to have you here.
The pleasure is all mine, ma!
We gotten accustomed to using that phrase "the richest country in the world," but beginning about the year 2000, I found my students (mostly poor, mostly first generation college students, in the coal fields of Kentucky), did not believe that the U.S. actually was a "rich country". They understood that there were rich individuals, in fact they actually believed that wealth was more widely spread than it was (is). But they had all completely bought into the Republican talking points that had dominated politics for most of their lives: wealth belonged to individuals, not to the country, and that our government was spending beyond its means and needed to cut spending. This didn't mean that
THEY didn't want or expect things from the government (Pell grants, job opportunities, Headstart, WIC, public colleges, lower tuition, etc.). They and the people they knew were deserving of help, and often didn't get it, but most of those others (not just racial and ethnic differences, but people in cities, people in the flat lands) were asking for too much, and the government was spending too much, and taxing too much. They were (and I suspect still are) quite clear that the US was NOT a wealthy country, just a place where individuals who were lucky and worked super hard could become wealthy.
It was and still is sad to me that they do not see this as a country who can afford to build big things (like dams, bridges, highway systems, or even good public education systems), they don't have the big dreams for making the world a better place through the actions of government that I and my friends had in the 1960's.