Photo: Even the homeless need to be imaginative to survive in the "land of plenty" ("Can you hit the cup with your coin ?")
The German magazine "Spiegel" reports on the economic and social development in the United States and topped with impressive and frightening numbers what arose for us visitors as vague impression. Every eighth American and fourth child depends on State food stamps. 17% of the population are either directly unemployed or to inadequate feed of their day jobs. And the clear majority expects that their children will be worse than themselves. Where is the proverbial optimism of Americans? Is rising consumption only the last attempt to habe a party before the final breakdown happens?
Since the 1970s the median income for working men is stagnant at 45,000 $, while that of the top earner has tripled since then. How long can faith persist that anyone can make it to the top with hard work? After all, this is one of the basic conditions for social peace in the country.
On the other hand schools in Hawaii close on Fridays, in parts of Georgia public bus transport ended and in Colorado Springs they can no longer afford even the electricity for the street lights. This is no longer the "land of plenty". It is still the nation that cliff on everyone else and holds its own model for superior, but to prove this is increasingly difficult.
Our impressions of missing infrastructure, mobile phone networks existing only in urban areas, poor container houses and especially frightening many homeless people were obviously a true part of reality. The 21st century will probably not be the century of the United States. Visit America as long as it still stands!
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