This video is probably old news, but I feel it makes an overall very valid point. [b]Edit:[/b] since its abundantly clear I'm putting too much faith in the intelligence of the flood to understand the point here, I'll just lay out the meat and potatoes from the video for you. [quote] We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were. And we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men. We aspired to intelligence, we didn't belittle it, it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in our last election. And we didn't... we didn't scare so easy. We were able to be all these things, and to do all these things, [b]because we [u]were[/u] informed.[/b] By great men, men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. [/quote] America Avg yearly wage: ~$56,000 Global Rank: 1st Median yearly wage for a working adult: ~$30,000 Global Rank: 4th (Behind Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland) Basic standard of living in the United States: [url=http://www.epi.org/publication/bp224/] ~$48,000 [/url] For an avg 2 adult, 2 child family. Global Rank: ranking measures too varied. On avg we're about 15th Here we can already see that for an avg family two working parents is a necessity to not live in poverty. And [u]qualify and depend on government assistance.[/u] If you have people on welfare, then we need to allow them to not need it. Education global overall Rank 14th (Behind countries like China, and Russia) We rank 12th in college completion rates when in the last few decades we were at or near the top. Cost of college has risen 250% in the last 30 years alone. 75% of college students are college commuters, juggling jobs, and families. Only 24% of part time students achieve a 4 year degree after attending college for 8 years compared to 60% of full time students earning their degree. What is happening is we have placed such a financial burden on college students that more and more of them are unable to attend college full time, which is causing degrees to take longer too achieve, as well as a lower % of them successfully wanting their degree. It creates a skill gap in the work force and the jobs that are available. This something we are seeing more and more today. American students are not only coming out of college in debt, they are often coming out with no degree into a job market they aren't qualified to compete in. We need to make American education a priority on the national agenda again.