Why America is Not A First World Country- Erwin Kamuene

America’s position of economic and political hegemony on the world stage has only increased in these last few years. As we’ve watched the market capitalization of companies such as Amazon and Apple rocket upwards and pass the GDP of many small nations, it seems as if we can do nothing more to validate our national image of staunch capitalists. 

Consequently, this has caused us to shift our focus off of the grand stadium of international happenings, back down to our small domestic stage. And a sentiment that has followed that change of perspective, having been echoed by politicians and the like many times by now, is that the numbers don’t add up. 

The United States, at this point in the history of the world and our own country, has the highest consolidation of wealth. The first 10 companies on the Fortune 500 are all American, and 8 out of the 10 richest people on earth are, as well. One would only assume from these statistics that the economic well being of the American people mirror that of our trailblazing companies, yet the current image of America is the exact opposite of what one would assume. 

Economic disparity and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened to such an extent, that from an economic standpoint the numbers are comparable to that of a third world country. Part of this is due to the failure of these companies to complete their social responsibility of paying their taxes instead of finding loopholes in the system. Another part of this is due to the pre-existing legislature that is made to benefit no one but these corporate entities.  

From healthcare to other systems, the privatization of programs that would be government-funded programs in other countries has handed the control of America over to a few corporate entities at the expense of everyone else. 

These corporations have abused their privilege of being America’s supply line to things as basic as medicine, and from the wealth they've garnered from those exploits they have further increased their power over America. This incongruent system has been left to run amok and work unnoticed for decades upon decades by now, continually siphoning political power from the hands of the American people. 

America is no longer a nation run for the people and by the people, but for the benefit of a wealthy minority at the detriment of the well-being of the majority. Until these basic issues that lie at the heart of our nation are somehow remedied, the United States does not deserve to call itself a first world country.