Originally Posted by inthecrack

There's plenty of great things America has going for it with many awesome people and great opportunities. However I find myself becoming increasingly disillusioned with what America has become. While the country was founded on solid principles of democracy and freedoms it is getting more obvious that the US has lost it's way and bogged down into a mess of bureaucracy and authoritarianism. Though I am a law abiding person I cannot help but feel oppressed any time I visit the USA. Though the common citizen in US is a decent caring person it seems that those in a position of power including government, customs, law enforcement and military are on a mad power trip. The attitude appears to be to regulate and enforce the hell out of everything, paralyzing progress and productivity in the process and to meddle in everyone else's affaires. It's not enough to try to just control your own country but you have to overstep your bounds and influence the entire world as well.

What is it with the US prison population? Here's some pretty appalling statistics I found. The source: http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/u...-largest-world and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarce..._United_States



Apparently the US is just creating criminals with an overzealous and misguided bent for punishment and revenge. I gotta think a great number of these prisoners are just victims of extreme sentences and overzealous legal enforcement such as the war on drugs. Was nothing learned from the follies of prohibition? What is the real human cost of all these incarcerations? Every one of these prisoners has innocent mothers, fathers, and often sons and daughters that suffer almost as much from their incarceration. Not to mention the financial burden on the federal budget and tax payers to house all of these "criminals".

An American friend of mine actually spent a month in jail for "crossing the street". How did this come about? He got a ticket for j-walking and then forgot about it. Before long he had a warrant for his arrest and a $1000 fine. Since he refused to pay the ridiculous fine he spent a month in jail.

A Canadian friend of mine was denied entry into US by customs because 25 years previous he was caught with one gram of marijuana. 3 years later he is still waiting for his pardon.

What is it with the US military spending? 20% of the total US budget is spent on the military. The US military budget is more than the next 20 largest military spenders combined. WTF? Perhaps if the US didn't meddle in everyone else's affairs then there would be less hatred aimed at the US and therefore no need for such a monumental waste of money.

Here's an interesting article on the abuse of power in US government http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...ntion-citizens

Those American's who beat their chest and claim "greatest country in the world" should pipe down a little and have some humility until such time as America once again truly becomes the land of the free. If you can get over your enormous power trip, stop suing each other, separate church and state, and reform the prison system then we could possibly all agree, "greatest country in the world". Hell I'd even want to live there myself.