I just spend just over 2 weeks split between Copenhagen, Denmark and Berlin, Germany. The contrast between the United States (US) and either of the two locations I spent time in is night and day. Here are just some of the ways that the US has sadly lagged behind the rest of the world:

1. Crystal clear water direct from the tap, no filters needed
2. Students encouraged to go to University or Trade Schools, no cost
3. Guaranteed healthcare with no co-pays, co-insurance, or premiums
4. People are courteous to a fault in majority of locations and situations
5. Bikes have more right-of-way than cars do
6. Most cities are walkable with reliable public transportation
7. Food is largely not processed, no artificial crap added

We have this idea that the US is the best in the world. We aren’t by a long shot. We are a self-centered, entitled, group of people that believe they are better than the rest of the world while the world is quietly laughing at us behind our backs. My experience in just two countries has lifted the blinders off my eyes and I now see the decades long game of manipulation that has slowly made us weaker, poorer, and less educated than any other generation that has come before us. The crap we were sold about getting a degree, getting a job, and then everything else will just happen is no longer our reality. If you’re born into poverty, life is stacked against you before you can even walk or talk.

Please don’t misunderstand my disdain for the US, there were obviously some problems in both Denmark and Germany. No system is perfect and it’s arrogant to think so. I saw homelessness in Germany and Denmark, but there is one glaring difference. The homeless are CHOOSING to be homeless because there are multiple programs available to help bring people up and into housing and a job. This seems to work better in Denmark than Germany, however they do exist if they choose to take advantage. The US by comparison has erected barriers to assistance, for example, you need an address to receive assistance, but a homeless person doesn’t have an address. Make that make sense to me.

It pisses me off that the majority of Americans, who have never left the state they were born in let alone travel to other states, believe that this is the best country in the world. That may have been true following World War II, but the whole excess 80’s ideology has shifted more wealth up to a few more than in our countries short history. It will take some serious radical changes to right that wrong and redistribute wealth away from the top.

I don’t trust the majority of news in the US. Facebook and Instagram are NOT news sources, but unfortunately a lot of people rely in those sources for news. Any system that finds and displays what it “thinks” you want to see can never be unbiased. No one can convince me otherwise, I see the game for what it is and have since left it more than a decade ago. I am not on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or any social media platform anymore. I have WhatsApp to talk to people outside the US without the need for an international calling plan. I am the person that the establishment doesn’t like because I am skeptical of the system they have developed over the past 40 years that started with Reagan and his “trickle down economics” idea. That never worked, but for some reason, those in power still think that it does work, otherwise they would have stopped taxing the poor and cutting taxes for the rich.

My new goal now is to figure out how to get out of the US as soon as feasible and move to Denmark or another country in the general region like Sweden or Norway. At some point, I may relinquish my US citizenship as well, but time and knowledge will determine that. I will turn my back on the country I’ve called home for over 50 years without a second thought. This isn’t the country that I thought it was and perhaps hasn’t been since WWII ended. Prosperity is a bitch if left unchecked and unregulated.