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Dear Doc,
I humbly agree. As an ex-pat, there are truly many days where I miss these aspects of the US. That said, while I agree that there is not enough gratefulness and gratitude for what we have in the US, simultaneously, I think we as a nation have become complacent as well.
When my father immigrated to the US, we truly were the "shining light of hope" in the world. Yet I fear that that light has dimmed. What I mean is, for example, whenever I watch election rhetoric (although, yes, it IS rhetoric), I hear frequent comments about how great America is, and how it is the greatest nation in the world. ...and YES, to an extent, I agree. We have one of the most fair legal systems in the world, the greatest institutions of learning, and most importantly the right to elect our representatives. In comparison, while living in Japan (as just one country of comparison) I am often frustrated by the lack of open access people have to the judicial system, the tragically under-funded university system, and the inability for the citizens to elect their own "chief-of-state."
However, we have become "top-heavy" with unequal access to many of the aspects that make America great. I find that the emphasis on what we in the US have can sometimes blind us to what we do NOT have or what we have LOST, and what some have but others do not. For example, take health care. While in Japan I can get an x-ray for the equivalent of $20 and a cat-scan or MRI for $50. All thanks to government insurance (blanket coverage of 70% of all medical fees). Even without insurance this would still be under $100 for the x-ray for instance. This would be the same for a child as for an elderly person. My daughter (an infant) has ALL her health care costs covered, thanks to the movement to care for babies and set life-long standards of health. As a result of the low costs of treatment, if something is wrong, my doctor will test me until they find what the cause of my illness is beyond any reasonable doubt, and not leave out possible tests due to issues like insurance costs. One would think that the limitation would be poorly trained doctors, but with so many studying in the US, I find the skill level to be equivalent.
In comparison, back in the US, one of my closest friends is in his mid-30's but still cannot get insurance. He works in a small company which cannot afford to provide him with coverage, and to get individually insured would run him $8000 a year before premiums for the cheapest service he can find due to "pre-existing conditions" like a knee he blew out while playing high school football. When I worked in the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (essentially part of the Hutch at the time, although I heard the name and its status have changed since) I noticed that something like 40% of the employees dealt with insurance and recording simply because all the different insurance companies had different codes, payment standards, etc. Just because of our current insurance system (and the insurance company lobbyists), WE the citizenry have to pay through the nose for often limited service. Although this is just one example, I fear that we as citizens of the US are forgetting (or not understanding) that many countries are passing us by in service to their own citizenry. While I worked at the now defunct Lehman Brothers, I could afford EXCELLENT health care in the US. When I returned to a university to pursue a PhD (luckily a few years before Lehman's implosion), suddenly I was too poor to pay for health insurance. Somehow that strikes me as imbalanced, and I fear that the rhetoric of greatness has simultaneously blinded us to the pains (sometimes literally) that some of our fellow citizens must endure.
This is but one example of the aspect of American Greatness that I fear has been lost. One could also point to the decline in public education (the sciences in particular), the hate towards the "other" that is sadly still prevalent among so many (last time I was home in Puyallup, local teenagers drove by screaming for me to "go back to China" even though I was born in Swedish Hospital, and it's sadly far worse still for those of Muslim heritage), rates of violent crime, etc. Even in our courts of law, the power of the dollar to buy the best trial lawyers also slowly chips away at the foundations of legal equality (case studies like "trading helping hands for boxing gloves" or something similar in name regarding State Farm's denial of payment to deserving claimants in favor of litigation for the sake of preserving profit margins--eventually made into a John Grisham (?) movie).
As I said, however, this is a corollary. We still have so much that is going right for us in the US, but I think that complacency and the focus on "things" (like the video game and crayon examples Doc provided) over rights or ideas is unfortunately undercutting our nation.
Just my 2 cents for what it's worth.
Many thanks again Doc, for always stimulating conversation.
Warmest regards,
Jeff in Tokyo