America is known across the world for its many problems. Here are five ways that America can instantly become a better place to live. The following are in no particular order because they are all important. The first would be to make a universal living wage. What this means is to make it so that anyone living anywhere in America makes enough to live. The second is to make sure that America has a universal health care system.
This provides Americans with a system that allows for greater access to health care. The next would be to establish a universal education system. The reason why one would want to do that is that education is one of the primary means of upwards mobility. Furthermore, a universal housing system provides all Americans with a place to live, which is one of humanity’s basic needs. Lastly, if America assured that every person had access to free food, America would be a much better place to live.
Universal Living Wage
A universal living wage is one of the easiest ways to increase the quality of life for every American all at once. The problem with the minimum wage is that people have to keep fighting for it to move up. With a universal living wage, it wouldn’t matter how much inflation increased or if the billionaires have been union-busting lately. All that would matter is that a person lives in America and has a job. Making all jobs subject to the law of universal living wage would mean that it wouldn’t matter if someone is working a job at McDonald’s or is an investment banker. This policy would fight back against economic inequality by providing all Americans an opportunity to live fuller lives. A living wage for a single Chicagoan with no children would be $18.72, according to MIT’s living wage calculator.
Universal Healthcare
Unfortunately, Americans are a nation without real access to healthcare. Many avoid health care to avoid costs. This is because the American healthcare system is designed to profit from the injuries and illnesses of the American population. Many Americans are at the mercy of pharmaceutical companies to get the drugs that they need to live. Insulin, for example, is one of the most precious drugs that millions of Americans need to survive. Yet, the average market price for insulin keeps going up year after year. A universal health care system prevents the exploitation of working-class Americans. “After decades of steady price hikes by manufacturers, a vial of insulin now costs about $300 — roughly 30,000% more than the original cost of the patent,” according to LA Times.
Working-class Americans have no choice but to ration their insulin because they can’t pay for the medicine they need to live. A universal healthcare system rejects this concept and makes any and all life-saving medicine readily available and affordable to all. “The right to health is the core value of universal health coverage, to be promoted and protected without distinction of age, ethnic group, race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, economic position, birth, or any other status.” according to PAHO
Universal Education
Education is one of the most important aspects of any nation. In America, higher education has many barriers to entry. College continues to become more and more expensive year after year. With this, comes a larger barrier for working-class Americans to access higher education. Unfortunately, many have to use student loans to pay for the increasing costs, placing people in debt for the rest of their lives. A universal education system rejects the idea that people should have to pay for their education. A universal education system would make sure that through all grade levels and throughout all of higher education, education is completely free and accessible.
Education has become one of the barriers to higher-paying jobs. If people can’t get the degrees necessary for said higher-paying jobs, their chances of acquiring a higher-paying job are lower. Education isn’t just for getting jobs, though. Some people want to learn things and expand their minds and every member of society should have access to a place where they can do that. One can’t engage in the liberty of knowledge if there are barriers to said knowledge. The current education system restricts Americans’ freedom to learn and grow as people.
Universal Housing
When one is done with their day, they need a home to rest their head and rest their mind. Unfortunately, not every American has access to housing. This is the American homeless population. Not every homeless person looks the same, and many of them have jobs. The problem is that many jobs themselves require proof of address. On top of this, many jobs simply don’t pay well. The homeless American population is one of the marginalized sections of the American population.
As a result of socioeconomic conditions, these people tend to come from black, brown, and working-class backgrounds. Universal housing isn’t about just giving away free homes to homeless people, it is about securing one of humanity’s basic needs to all who need it. Homeless people shouldn’t exist in a country with an excess of empty homes. “Sixteen million homes currently sit vacant across the U.S. In every state across the country, many homes remain empty while hundreds of thousands of Americans face homelessness,” according to United Way NCA.
Universal Food Assurance
Finally, food is also one of humanity’s basic needs. Yet, in America, there are people and even children who go hungry at night. There are sections of the American population that are starving every night. Not only this, there are sections of the American population that don’t have access to healthy foods in general. These people live in what is generally known as food deserts. A food desert is a place that has low access to healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. There is no human being that wouldn’t die without access to food.
So with that information in mind, every human being should have access to healthy foods. If every American always had access to healthy foods, then America would look a lot different. “USDA’s Economic Research Service previously identified more than 6,500 food desert tracts in the United States based on 2000 Census and 2006 data on locations of supermarkets, supercenters, and large grocery stores,” according to a USDA research report.
American Inequality
All in all, America is a place with many inequalities present. These are 5 ways that people can make America a better place to live. If any of these five policies were nationally implemented, the quality of life for the average American would increase significantly. For those worried about how these policies can be paid for, the military defense budget has several hundred million that can be cut to pay for this. The more the American government invests in the lives of its citizens, the greater the quality of life the average American can live.
Written by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources
Paho: Universal Health
LivingWageMITEDU: Chicago
LATimes: Column: Soaring insulin prices reveal clout, and greed, of healthcare middlemen by David Lazarus
UnitedWayNCA: VACANT HOMES VS. HOMELESSNESS IN CITIES AROUND THE U.S. by United Way NCA
Dutko, Paula, Michele Ver Ploeg, and Tracey Farrigan. Characteristics and
Influential Factors of Food Deserts, ERR-140, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, August 2012.
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First Inset Image Courtesy of Dennis Jarvis’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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