A country without pity

The future is in our past - The ongoing debate around the anticipated changes to healthcare services in the rural areas of Newfoundland has left me wondering if we appreciate our country. Canada is a country to be envied for its social safety nets, healthcare and vast natural resources. Yet, the majority of people in the world envy the United States.

The world's poor struggle to go to the US and the world's academics readily accept Green Cards, when they are recruited for their ability to keep the US technically sound. The world has been sold freedom and prosperity (American style), à la a country where any man (not yet woman) can aspire to become president.

If one confines one's visits to relatives who have made it and tourism attractions, one can easily become confused about the real state of the country. It's when one travels off the beaten track that one sees clearly Americans who have no access to health care and work one or two jobs well past retirement age. This is the hidden America that prompted one of my friends to remark, "Good Lord, America is a third world country."

That status is truly reflected in the rundown towns with abandoned houses, across rural California and Nevada. The houses didn't reflect an abundance of riches in their heyday. But now they truly denote poverty. Derelict and rundown gas stations, hotels and houses are peppered across the landscape.

In the only hotel in a town advertising the wonders of hot springs, the room was so bad there was nothing to do but sleep fully clothed on top of the bed. In the restaurant, a half dozen bikers were discussing the state of the economy. One man said that if he didn't find work soon his family would have no option but to move in with his parents. This seemed contradictory to the look of his over-sized Harley-Davidson.

Still the size of the vehicles may simply reflect the bigger is better attitude of the Americans and the easy credit of past decades. Cars aren't small in Canada, but in rural US, they seem as big as houses. In an effort to cut down on gas consumption, highways have a special lane for cars with two or more occupants. That lane is usually all but empty.

In contrast to the poverty strewn across the landscape, there was one large town/city that looked prosperous. There were large new houses everywhere. Upon looking closer, one could see that construction had been abandoned and many houses were empty. Research turned up information that, before the recession, this city had been the fastest growing city in California, if not the United States. Shockingly, many houses are now in foreclosure and the banks are demolishing them rather than pay the town taxes.

There's no doubt that the US is Mecca for those who make it. For those who aren't so fortunate, it's not a bed of roses. Hard work and working more than one job just to make ends meet are common. Yet there doesn't seem to be much complaining.

Healthcare costs bankrupt people, and they simply take it in their stride. Others never have access to healthcare. Americans are hard wired to believe they should make it on their own. Like addicted casino players, they are ready to loose all their money for the dream of being able to make it big.

They are also hard wired to fear, it seems. The hotel rooms have deadbolts on the doors, and there's a long list of instructions advising what to do if someone knocks on the door. Someone did actually knock on my door unexpectedly, and it didn't bother me a bit.

Americans also fear the word communism. They want to be free and being free is to work hard, at anything and everything, to survive in hard times, rather than become government dependant. They know they may not hit the jackpot but they seem to want to keep the possibility. And they seem to think that government support would stop the possibility of winning the jackpot.

Social programs are anathema to conservative Americans. It broke my heart one day to see a middle-aged man in a large new pickup truck, sporting a construction business advertisement, who had resorted to rifling through the garbage for cans and bottles. As Canadians, we have little understanding of people who shun government help in the name of freedom.

Today, we are hearing more and more about something called a jobless recovery. As my mother would undoubtedly have said, "A jobless recovery is no recovery at all." But perhaps Wall Street is all the needs to recover. It is after all the symbol of the God Capitalism, which reigns supreme.

What are a few more unemployed in the scheme of things, as long as the super rich don't suffer? It used to be my belief that if the economy got bad enough people could rise up and demand something better from their government. My recent trip has caused me to think that Runnymede and the Bastille are a long way off for poor Americans. Acceptance breaks the spirit.