America and Finland

I love living in Finland. Compared to America it is the tops. I am not saying living in America sucks, but it does when you are poor. Being poor in America is a highly degrading hopeless experience. The possibilities are slim to none to succeed and you are blamed for not working hard and ceasing opportunities that are seen to sprout up like mushrooms after a perpetual rain. Now the environment is a little more understanding because the recession hit everyone. For once it was okay to be poor, people understood. The recession was everywhere and it was now the fault of the recession that you were poor, not the fault of your own laziness. I am here to tell you, these troubles did not come about because of the recession, the recession just brought to light the problems America's poor had been having for about a decade or so. The recession took a long time to reach the middle class the poor were screwed for years.

What of the American dream? Well, it is just a dream and has been less and less to do with reality over the years. We had little to no hope for the American dream. For years we scraped by barely making ends meet, frequently relying on food banks and the kindness of friends. It was humiliating and we were judged. Why weren't we working for a better life? Why weren't we improving our lot through job advancement and education? Why weren't we saving money? We did not have enough money for an education, we were ineligible to student loans, there is no student aid from the government, FYI, just loans, think about it. We could not get better jobs because of lack of degrees and in my case lack of a legal status in America. We were not saving money because there was not enough. We went out to eat maybe once every two months, if that and I am talking about McDonalds, and we never went to the movies or anything. Having a computer with internet access was our only form of entertainment that cost money. It was all we could afford and it was the only way to have a social life having no car. There was simply nothing to cut to have more money with out making our lives absolutely bleak. Our only hope was a sudden stroke of luck of a better job or a promotion for my husband. Those things never seemed to materialize, it was like playing the lottery. We still did not have the decency to be miserable. We were able to find fun and entertainment and love each other despite all this and it made people angry who felt like poor people with no real hope should be unhappy.

Now we are in Finland and we are able to work toward the American dream. I do not care what some people say, Finland is a wonderful place to live. My husband is getting free Finnish education in a great school. He is also finally getting his numerous and potentially life threatening not to mention painful dental problems cared for. That would have been an impossibility in America. My son is getting free dental and health care just for being a child. He will have the opportunity to partake of the best education system in the entire word for absolutely free. I am going to be able to get trained for a job and actually work and earn money. Same goes for my husband but first he has to learn Finnish. We are on basic subsistence aid. When they say basic subsistence they mean subsistence, not barely scraping by and wondering what you are going to eat at the end of the month aid like in America. With it we have enough money to actually budget to get a saving account and put a little bit aside every month for surprise expenses and the like. We are no longer hopeless and scared, now we can eat real food and not have to improvise from food pantry discards. We know that if we work hard and cease opportunities we can move up. The American dream is alive in Finland. My vote counts. I can write to political parties and get prompt, non-form letter responses from people that care enough to respond to my actual inquiry and act as if my vote and opinion counts. This is so different than America. What ever people complain about Finland are spoiled and don't know how well they have it. Sure there are problems which is why I will vote and work to make society more like what I want it to be.

So Americans, it is not too late to move to a better country. Has America left you an empty hopeless shell waving the red white and blue sobbing quietly as you face homelessness, unemployment and the hungry hollow faces of your children? It is not to late too emigrate. Take your cold hungry unemployed butt to the library, find some info on a country you would like to live in more and sell what little you have and get a passport and get on out of there. Your family's future depends on it. On the other hand if you are doing well and you have made a profit from the recession investing wisely and buying a cheap house someone was evicted from, I salute you. Help a poor, unemployed neighbor move out of the country to make a new start somewhere else and stop being a drain on the country’s poor resources. Sure the recession is supposedly over but tell that to the poor, they feel no real difference. Soon it is back to being judged and not having the understanding of those around them blaming it on the depression and not their own laziness.