AOC and the “lack of American prosperity”
I just saw a Facebook post (I’m sure from at least a year or two ago) regarding Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who was quoted in an article stating that our youngest generation has “never seen American prosperity”. The post rightly refuted this quote (as have MANY others) pointing out the fact that American’s today have never NOT seen prosperity. They have not seen the likes of the great depression, lived through world wars, or seen any other true hardships that are the norm in 3rd world countries or were normal for our parents and grandparents. I am of the GenX group (from fairly early in that generation as well) and I haven’t seen even a modicum of the lack of prosperity that my parents and grandparents had to endure. This lack of recognition of how prosperous the U.S. is by AOC and many other “leaders” of our country is one of the main issues our country is currently facing. Everyone is so entitled today that the slightest discomfort they encounter sends them running to file lawsuits or claim their freedom is being restricted. It’s absolutely asinine.
This brings me around to the main reason for this post. Age limits. When our constitution was written it was determined that a president had to be at least 35, 30 for senators, and our representatives needed to be at least 25 years of age. I’m beginning to think that based on the changes in generations these age limits may need to be increased. When these limits were determined a person of 25 held so much more experience than many 40-year-olds I know today. It used to be that by the time you were done with your teens you knew how to provide for yourself and your family without the need for any outside “assistance”. You would have learned years ago how to tend to the raising of crops, livestock, and family. You would know how to prepare a meal from your own yard, whether it was the crops or the livestock you were able to take care of what was needed to ensure your family could survive.
Today (and a good bit of my generation for that matter) get flustered if the internet goes out for longer than 10 to 15 minutes. They aren’t sure how to get by if the shelves of the store are no longer stocked with their families list of items. Let’s not even get into discussing the disaster when their favorite restaurant closes. I personally don’t feel that anyone who should be considered a leader (as many think of AOC) when they don’t have the slightest inclination as to what true prosperity (or lack thereof) means. Growing up poor today doesn’t often mimic what poor was like a generation or two ago. When our parents and grandparents were poor it meant that they made an entire soup using water and a single potato. They didn’t necessarily have food stamps or government assistance to rely on to help “get them by”.
I also think that any person interested in a position in our government should have a requirement of traveling through 3rd world countries. I’m not referring to the travel most of them are accustomed to either, staying in resorts with people around to tend to their needs. They should travel solo, stay in hostels, and really learn how people in truly poor countries have to live daily. It would be quite eye opening to most of them to realize that Americans (even a majority of what are considered poor Americans) actually have it quite good. This is not to say there are not Americans that are suffering horribly, but the “American prosperity” that many claim to not exist is such a ridiculous concept that the mere utterance should cause someone to lost their position as a leader until they learn what that phrase actually means.
This is just my own thoughts on the matter, I’d love to hear yours.
- Gerg