Now. The interesting part is what happened in the rest of the rich world. While life’s basics in America turned into una

I read an interesting article recently about the opioid epidemic, and how it pointed to collapse. It did — but the common answer that American intellectuals use most often, that collapse is due to some kind of lack of piety, sanctity, and nuclear family— is so inadequate, I can disprove it with a sentence.

Just as social bonds are basics of life that we must be able to afford, so too are the rest — healthcare, education, media, retirement, and so on. The problem, though, is that Americans cannot afford those anymore, because life’s basics have become luxuries for the richest few. And in that void, people are turning, in desperation, to authoritarianism, magical thinking, extremism, scapegoating, and harder solutions — like opioids. It isn’t a coincidence that all these things are rising while life grows harder, meaner, nastier, and more unlivable.

There is a truer, harsher — and simpler — explanation behind American collapse. America has the rich world’s lowest quality of life, by a long way — after all, Americans will die 5–10 years younger than Spaniards or Germans, but even that understates the issue. It is uniquely a dismal life: nowhere else do we see opioid epidemics, kids massacring one another at schools, having “active shooter drills”, or:

Let me explain. I don’t just mean in terms of covid, but we can start there. You know the statistic by now: America has 5% of the world’s population, but 20% of its covid deaths. What that means in practice, though, is that if you’re American, your chances of getting sick and possibly even dying from an illness which has been handled much better in other parts of the world, is vastly higher. How much higher? Well, for example, New Zealand has conquered Covid not once, but twice. Across even Africa and Asia, Covid has been largely kept in check. Your chances of succumbing to Covid as an American are anywhere from 5 to…well, technically, anywhere from 5 to infinity times higher than most of the rest of the world right now.

Let me give you another example. Millennials are delaying marriage and having kids — into forever. But is there anything more basic to life than that?So social bonds “break” — or more accurately, are never forged at all — and conservatives blame collapse on a lack of family values. But there is a reason millennials cannot form families — and it is not because they are depraved hippies.

In nominating Neera Tanden, once again Biden’s inner circle has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no such thing as pushing him to the left. There is no persuading or reasoning with politicians who have taken almost every opportunity to show their disdain for the left and their visions. Joe Biden is inarguably — like so many other corporate Democratic politicians — an active barrier to progress, and needs to be treated as such. Nominations of people like Neera Tanden, unfortunately, are just one of the ways that he shows it.

This election is about many things: authoritarianism vs democracy, civilization vs fascism, sanity vs folly. It’s a referendum on the intelligence, goodwill, and decency of America as a country. But beneath all that, this election is about a deeper truth: America has become an unlivable country.

Today’s millennial is tomorrow’s Tom Coomer — he will never retire, no matter how hard he works, saves, or tries. It is simply not in the cards for him — Tom did not have to pay hundreds of thousands for education or a home, but the millennial does, so if Tom cannot retire, how will the millennial? What else should we expect in a society with stagnant incomes, savings, and life expectancies but the breakdown of social bonds? Social bonds are things we must be able to afford, too — they do not come to us out of thin air.

http://m.dentisalut.com/qtk/Video-strasbourg-v-nimes-olympique-v-fr-fr-1air-7.php

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http://m.dentisalut.com/qtk/videos-Lorient-Monaco-v-en-gb-1mop30122020-.php

http://skrs.vidrio.org/sbe/v-ideos-cornella-v-atletico-madrid-v-es-es-1lvk-15.php

http://skrs.vidrio.org/sbe/Video-cornella-v-atletico-madrid-v-es-es-1kkb-11.php

http://old.cocir.org/media/sja/Video-lorient-v-monaco-v-fr-fr-1mlx-22.php

http://agro.ruicasa.com/kjv/Video-union-espanola-v-coquimbo-unido-v-es-cl-1tua-18.php

http://m.dentisalut.com/qtk/videos-Lorient-Monaco-v-en-gb-1mta-10.php

http://m.dentisalut.com/qtk/video-Lorient-Monaco-v-en-gb-1hqe-18.php

http://agro.ruicasa.com/kjv/Video-union-espanola-v-coquimbo-unido-v-es-cl-1zrk-14.php

http://skrs.vidrio.org/sbe/video-cornella-v-atletico-madrid-v-es-es-1fmm-17.php

http://old.cocir.org/media/sja/Video-lorient-v-monaco-v-fr-fr-1rxl-8.php

http://m.dentisalut.com/qtk/video-Strasbourg-Nimes-Olympique-v-en-gb-1atk-.php

http://old.cocir.org/media/sja/videos-Nantes-Stade-Rennes-v-en-gb-1tbb-.php

http://skrs.vidrio.org/sbe/v-ideos-cornella-v-atletico-madrid-v-es-es-1kmv-7.php

eccable taste and can decorate their apartment with an assortment of random stuff that would simply collect dust and look like a heap of junk in my apartment. I have tried being one of these people, and I’ve ultimately had to admit I’m just not very good at it. But if I were one of those people I would definitely want this bathing lady catchall from Coming Soon to sit on my dresser next to my little vanity mirror and hold a bunch of change or palo santo or prescription SSRIs.

But Covid is only one small feature of a larger set of interlinked crises in America. America is a country in social, economic, cultural, and political crisis, and all of those add up to a collapsing society.

Life’s basics became luxuries, more expensive by the year, instead of necessities — right down to the most basic of things human beings live for at all. But that is the exact opposite of what happened elsewhere in the world. Not iPhones and Facebook. But the fundamentals of a decent life. Retirement, healthcare, education, income, savings, safety, stability, marriage, families, trust itself. All these things are simply now unaffordable for the average American. And worse, they are skyrocking in price every year. 66% of Americans choose between food and healthcare. Do you see what I mean?

The most prosperous, progressive, and successful society in the world — Norway — isn’t a paragon of churchgoing nuclear family values, it’s the mirror image of it: divorce rates are high, marriage rates are low, and faith isn’t exactly a hot social issue. So American collapse can’t be because it isn’t Joel Osteen enough.

“Tom Coomer has retired twice: once when he was 65, and then several years ago. Each time he realized that with just a Social Security check, “you can hardly make it these days.”

Yet the most basic of bonds that human beings live for are with their partners and kids. But even those are becoming unaffordable in America. That tells us that all of life’s basics are becoming unaffordable for Americans. A marriage or partnership, kids, and a home itself: they come, for most people, before healthcare, education, retirement, and so forth. But if people are beginning to find the most basic of life’s goods unattainable luxuries — then the rest must be even more so. Having a kid costs tens of thousands of dollars, education can put you in debt for life. What the? So when the most primary thing in human life itself — the most fundamental social bonds that people hope for — have become unaffordable, then how can a society endure?

In nominating Neera Tanden, once again Biden’s inner circle has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no such thing as pushing him to the left. There is no persuading or reasoning with politicians who have taken almost every opportunity to show their disdain for the left and their visions. Joe Biden is inarguably — like so many other corporate Democratic politicians — an active barrier to progress, and needs to be treated as such. Nominations of people like Neera Tanden, unfortunately, are just one of the ways that he shows it.