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The American Dream: You have to be asleep to believe it.
By Christine Benjamin

If you live in the USA, physically live there, the state and Federal Government will take half your income.  California, ever the trendsetter, has bumped their tax rate to a whopping 15%. Other states are eyeing this move like it's the latest fashion trend. 

But wait, there's more! Don't forget to factor in insurance, medical costs, and the ever-present threat of lawsuits. It's like playing financial Jenga – one wrong move, and it all comes tumbling down.

The Vanishing Act of Urban

Remember when big cities were treasure troves of quirky businesses, vibrant art scenes, and cozy coffee shops? Well, those days are going the way of the dodo. Small businesses are becoming an endangered species, thanks to a perfect storm of Stock market shenanigans, Sky-high commercial rent and Wall Street wizardry.

They call it the American dream but you have to be asleep to believe it. Have you ever tried to fight your way through the court system or pay for medical care?

Big cities used to have value. Great little businesses, art galleries, music, thrift stores, coffee shops. All of that is gone. The small businesses have all been banned. The result of stock gimmicks. They tripled the commercial rent. It was too high for anyone to lease. But they don't care because the building is sold as a stock based on lease price. Some pensioners buy these stocks. The sellers get three times more than they should; simply by inflating the lease, then they sell it, Tax free to some equity or pensioner. Wall street banking terrorists make all this tax free money. but the city is devastated. No one can afford the lease. So charming businesses , music centers, leave. There is nothing left but vacant property. Vegas, Venice Beach, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Macon, the charm is gone thanks to wall street greed and fraud. Meanwhile, do people believe voting will fix it? did it ever?

The cost has caused people to become more predatory and parasitic to survive. The people don't trust each other. It becomes a civilized war zone. Infrastructure hasn't kept up with expansion. Many had to flood big cities as the government went to war against small businesses. People had to come to big cities for work. The fact is quality of life in the USA will continue to plunge till the very end.

Infrastructure is struggling to keep up with expansion, creating a perfect storm of chaos. Small businesses, once the backbone of local economies, are being squeezed out, forcing people to flock to big cities for work. It's a modern-day gold rush, minus the gold and plus a lot more traffic.

The Bottom Line

The quality of life in the USA seems to be on a downward spiral, with no sign of bottoming out anytime soon. But hey, at least we can still vote, right? Because that's always fixed everything in the past... right?

The American Dream might need a bit of a reality check. But don't worry – we're all in this together, laughing through the tears and hoping for a brighter tomorrow. Or at least a slightly less expensive one.

In 1951, long before the advent of the internet and intranet, public records were localized to specific towns. There were no backup systems in place for these records, as the manual labor required to create backups would have been overwhelmingly tedious without computer databases. Births were documented at hospitals, while deaths were recorded at city halls.

During this time, it was relatively easy to fabricate a new identity for oneself or another person.

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