If youâre fortunate to live in the United States, there are great things expected of you. No seriously, thereâs a lot of pressure living here. You not only have the best chance of earning a top tier-income, you have the opportunity to create your own business, establish a brand for yourself and be your biggest boss all on your own terms. Itâs the most convenient and easiest place to finally âmake itâ.
Thereâs no communist dictatorship censoring your rights or the government taking away most of your income once you reach a certain amount. You have free reign over your life; one of the best and worst parts about living in the land of opportunity.
You would think freedom is a moral right and the best way to live. Unfortunately, itâs not always the case.Â
As weâve witnessed the extreme dividedness during the 2020 election, the January 6th Capital Riots, polarization over mask mandates, no universal health care or college and deadly recurring shootings, freedom is all to blame for this out of control behavior that the US has been praised for uniting.
Freedom is too individualized. If you want help in America, Iâm sorry but Congress will take 6 months to come up with a plan to help the most desperate and your fellow top 10% + Americans will try everything in their power to avoid paying taxes to help the bottom 70%+.Â
Itâs one for all not all for one.
Everything requires moderation. From the amount of food you eat to how savvy you are about enforcing freedom, it doesnât hurt to set a boundaries especially when it comes to controlling a deadly virus.
As with other countries, although they have less âfreedomâ and arenât as financially secure as the US, they seem to not only be living their best lives, they are much healthier, happier and live longer too.
Money doesnât matter if your physical health is out of wack. Your health is all you got and at the end of the day, health = wealth. You can learn about what I mean here.
Compared to China, the US doesnât use itâs freedom resourcefully or rather appropriately. With their forced mask mandates, citizens have no choice besides complying otherwise off with their heads!
Restriction and consequences certainly help specifically when itâs at the expense of our health during a crisis or when raising children. Americans are provided everything that theyâve become too complacent with too many choices.
They want guns, legalized Marijuana and fight about masks. It seems the US has too much time and freedom on their hands to not focus on whatâs really important.
Americaâs Reign
The US is known as the greatest country in the world not due to its innovation, elite C-suit company portfolio or as one of the most diverse countries in the world, rather it is a global powerhouse having one differentiating factor that no other country has that sets it apart.
Itâs location and open borders. It is one of the long-sighted national leaders since the outset as a nation and has been able to grow expansively due to its diversity.
Unlike any other nation on earth, since the foundation of this country, the USA has kept its border open to immigrants of the various calibers and capacities to naturally bread more wealth. Capitalism, as well as the democratic system (not republic or democrat) just the peaceful transfer of power has also added power to this capacity of the people.
Itâs location is a staple; something that cannot be replaced or improved upon extensively.
Due to its distance from the mainland of the world where the threatening global powers exist, the USA has also enjoyed a peaceful progress in its nation-building, cheap real estate, coastal cities and immigrants.
Since the early 1900âs, the outward industrial and military trades have helped the USA stay wealthy at a stark level while also having a fierce Federal Reserve able to push the country into trillions of dollars into debt but for supposedly good reasons. Other countries simply do not have the capacity to deal with this massive debt burden and would financially and physically collapse but the US seems to not mind, continuing to pump trillions into the economy through stimulus and taking out loans each year.
Come Back
Immigration has saved the US from experiencing a demographics crisis like the one experienced in Japan, China, and the EU. America is one of the few, if not the only, developed country with a sustainable population replacement rate, all thanks to immigration.
Compared to China where the 1-child policy was put into effect as population was increasing at staggering rates and families werenât able to support themselves, this ruined the economy. Implemented in 1979, the goal was to make sure population growth was rising at normal levels yet was soon discontinued in 2015 after the realization that the policy had harmful unintended consequences such as gender imbalance, aging society and shrinking workforce.
South Korea, China, and the EU are all desperately trying to make sure they donât turn into another Japan: a country with an aging population, no real economic growth since 1994, and a national budget being overwhelmed due to having to take care of their pensioners (the elderly).
Although the US has an aging population and a wonky stock market as well based on no fundamentals most of the time especially since the S&P500 jumped 16% during the 2020 recession, itâs seen massive economic growth as the largest importer in the world and its size as a nation is a huge dominating factor.
Americaâs Future
America will always be a global powerhouse and is only increasing in size, caacty, innovation and expertise daily. Yet, newcomers in the finance and real estate space such as real estate institutions and foreign brokerage houses are coming to snag good deals from the heartland of America.
On that note, have you ever investigated who truly bought your childhood home?
I think I have the anwer.
Americaâs future looks bright for many reasons but there are countless challenges and problems that lie ahead for Biden who might not be able to accomplish all by 2024. His first priority in office is to combat the deadly virus, work with Congress to pass the stimulus bill, deal with migration, understand how the Fed can deal with an appropriate amount of 2% inflation hikes, interest rates, reopening, reaching herd immunity, terrorism, China tensions, wealth inequality, shootings and domestic threats.
Now this is an ambitious plan and no easy task to take on. I doubt this can all be achieved within the next 4 years but letâs hope the future looks bright.
Although America does have impressive achievements under its belt known as the richest nation, a well developed financially stable and driven economy with the most billionaires and trillion dollar companies, it has countless problems that cannot go unnoticed which include its lack and messed up system of no free healthcare, childcare, paid leave, parental care, education, government support, growing rates of mental illness, obesity, lack of happiness and fulfillment despite greatness and healthy competition.
Although psychologists and economists say that $75k is the baseline happiness pay to, I believe it must be higher. Living off of $75k is simply unrealistic in America. After taxes, commuting, mortgage interest rates, kids, lack of education, transportation and other household expenses, you would most likely be living on food stamps. In that case, I would state making north of $270k per person pre-taxes wonât provide much more happiness but will provide the most comfortable safe life in America. Unfortunately, thatâs 10% of Americans salary so we have massive work to do to bridge the wealth gap.
Compared to the nordic European countries that take the top seats in happiness, longevity and overall satisfaction, America is lagging badly not even in the top 20 seat. As a result, we can conclude that working till death, higher paychecks, more prestige do not make you a better person or your life more pleasant.
Whatâs the point to living if our wellbeing isnât in check?
Is your lifeâs purpose to place ads to steal money from peopleâs wallets or in that case eyeballs or calculate the most strategic budget to lay off people?
Despite higher taxes in Europe and lower paychecks, people are happier because of the other benefits that bite into our salaries in America so all in all, Americans donât make much more when taxes, expenses and other non-refundable fees are taken into consideration.
We need to normalize taking time off as Americans are workaholic and burnout society. Although itâs worked in our favor and especially Amazonâs, does it really matter if they were a 2 trillion dollar company or 1?
Just something to ponder upon.
The Rest of The World vs the US
The US seems pretty fantastic for its wealth and opportunities, but to really feel it, you must take more risk which means you could easily loose it all if you have no financial literacy background or understanding of risk management. If you take one bad turn within a company, you could end up as one of the 24 million who are unemployed in the US (pre-pandemic) simply because you couldnât afford health insurance or an unexpected heat bill came up.
When you have a trusted and reliable government who will pay for your healthcare, housing, provide benefits to your child and your employer offers time off to deal with personal matters, life is simpler yet America still isnât convinced despite proof overseas it works.
This has lead to no severe or frankly any worries for Europe. Everything is subsidized by the government and if you canât find a job in Europe, donât worry, you are like most graduates that live with their parents until mid-age. Itâs a sign of compassion and respect instead of embarrassment or feeling poor as in the US.
With less stress, suicides, depression, drugs, you name it, to compensate overworking, people are not only more understanding and happier, they live better lives and get more done overtime. There may be less innovation but who cares. They still have Ikea and Skype.
They care about support and not about innovation and regulation.
Capitalist Trepidation
As the US government controls our systems in the wrong ways, capitalism is too. There are many pros and cons to this approach. It ensures efficiency in the markets and as you know, America is all about markets. In addition, this accelerates more competition to promote innovation, freedom and opportunity as Ray Dalio, renowned hedge fund investor and philanthropist states.
With tuition costs spiraling out of control and massive government debt Iâm concerned where real change is headed.
Whatever is ahead, itâs at least reassuring to see most of us are surprisingly better off that we were a few years ago despite a deadly pandemic.
Keep it going and be careful.