{"id":525725,"date":"2010-04-13T03:40:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T07:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1752027331714385066.post-767268682828103831"},"modified":"2010-04-13T03:40:25","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T07:40:25","slug":"america-the-grim-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/525725","title":{"rendered":"America: The Grim Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_Jx78YcF-F8U\/S8Qf3pSGWbI\/AAAAAAAABk0\/yCgGW9CRQUk\/s1600\/tent-city-2.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_Jx78YcF-F8U\/S8Qf3pSGWbI\/AAAAAAAABk0\/yCgGW9CRQUk\/s320\/tent-city-2.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">I will not ask you to buy into every statement made in this article.&nbsp; Yet it should make one take note.&nbsp; Most of us understand our country and our lives at a local level only.&nbsp; You understand your home and workplace and you understand paying your bills.&nbsp; And family matters for most.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">Good medical care is purely a function of the doctor.&nbsp; The infrastructure helps but in the hands of a competent doctor service will be delivered.&nbsp; A country can afford to airlift a seriously sick patient to the best neurosurgeon and make that service cost effective.&nbsp; The short lesson is that quality of life is first a function of the quality of the people.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">The first rule is that if you have money, it is possible to live in paradise almost everywhere today.&nbsp; You simply build it.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">If you can earn a high enough wage and your skill set is not geography dependent such as software engineering you can land anywhere and quickly discover that your purchasing power far exceeds that in the <\/span><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">USA<\/span><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">The other important lesson is that professionals world wide have usually trained in the west.&nbsp; They go home and set up shop and expect the same quality they trained on.&nbsp; These are never grass shacks.&nbsp; I am very certain that I will not find any western trained barefoot doctors in <\/span><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">China<\/span><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"> today.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">This is all changing global culture and economics and making it easier for the rise of what might be called the global citizen.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">This item is a wake up call that really is saying that our statistics hide the economic reality that our quality of life is distorted by structural issues that do not appear elsewhere.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">Remember, we all know that the average economic indicator in the <\/span><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">USA<\/span><\/st1:country-region><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"> is superior in the <\/span><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">USA<\/span><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">.&nbsp; Our problem is that an average hides the shape of the distribution curve which may be quite disturbing.&nbsp; Thus a report by a biased observer who is in the field becomes useful in identifying issues.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">My own efforts on the health care debates inform me that the American health care industry has been turned into a financial monopoly controlled by the insurance industry with unfettered capacity to increase costs to the consumer and avoid providing service to the one third unable to pay.&nbsp; Competition is illusionary and is only for capturing paying victims of the system.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: small;\">It ends up been a super tax on the middle class.<\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">America<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: The Grim Truth<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">By Lance Freeman<\/span><\/i><\/b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">April 08, 2010 &#8220;<\/span><\/i><\/b><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.informationclearinghouse.info\/\"><strong>Information Clearing House<\/strong><\/a><b>&#8221; &#8212;&nbsp; Americans<\/b>, I have some bad news for you:<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">You have the worst quality of life in the developed world \u2013 by a wide margin.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If you had any idea of how people really lived in <st1:city w:st=\"on\">Western Europe<\/st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Australia<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">New Zealand<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Canada<\/st1:country-region> and many parts of <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Asia<\/st1:place>, you\u2019d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States of   America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. The mere thought of it fills me with dread.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Consider this: you are the only people in the developed world without a single-payer health system. Everyone in <st1:city w:st=\"on\">Western  Europe<\/st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Japan<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Canada<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Australia<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Singapore<\/st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">New Zealand<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> has a single-payer system. If they get sick, they can devote all their energies to getting well. If you get sick, you have to battle two things at once: your illness and the fear of financial ruin. Millions of Americans go bankrupt every year due to medical bills, and tens of thousands die each year because they have no insurance or insufficient insurance. And don\u2019t believe for a second that rot about America having the world\u2019s best medical care or the shortest waiting lists: I\u2019ve been to hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, and Thailand, and every one was better than the \u201cgood\u201d hospital I used to go to back home. The waits were shorter, the facilities more comfortable, and the doctors just as good.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">This is ironic, because you need a good health system more than anyone else in the world. Why? Because your lifestyle is almost designed to make you sick.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Let\u2019s start with your diet: Much of the beef you eat has been exposed to fecal matter in processing. Your chicken is contaminated with salmonella. Your stock animals and poultry are pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics. In most other countries, the government would act to protect consumers from this sort of thing; in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, the government is bought off by industry to prevent any effective regulations or inspections. In a few years, the majority of all the produce for sale in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:country-region> will be from genetically modified crops, thanks to the cozy relationship between Monsanto Corporation and the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> government. Worse still, due to the vast quantities of high-fructose corn syrup Americans consume, fully one-third of children born in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> today will be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Of course, it\u2019s not just the food that\u2019s killing you, it\u2019s the drugs. If you show any sign of life when you\u2019re young, they\u2019ll put you on Ritalin. Then, when you get old enough to take a good look around, you\u2019ll get depressed, so they\u2019ll give you Prozac. If you\u2019re a man, this will render you chemically impotent, so you\u2019ll need Viagra to get it up. Meanwhile, your steady diet of trans-fat-laden food is guaranteed to give you high cholesterol, so you\u2019ll get a prescription for Lipitor. Finally, at the end of the day, you\u2019ll lay awake at night worrying about losing your health plan, so you\u2019ll need Lunesta to go to sleep.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">With a diet guaranteed to make you sick and a health system designed to make sure you stay that way, what you really need is a long vacation somewhere. Unfortunately, you probably can\u2019t take one. I\u2019ll let you in on little secret: if you go to the beaches of Thailand, the mountains of Nepal, or the coral reefs of Australia, you\u2019ll probably be the only American in sight. And you\u2019ll be surrounded crowds of happy Germans, French, Italians, Israelis, Scandinavians and wealthy Asians. Why? Because they\u2019re paid well enough to afford to visit these places AND they can take vacations long enough to do so.<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Even if you could scrape together enough money to go to one of these incredible places, by the time you recovered from your jetlag, it would time to get on a plane and rush back to your job.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If you think I\u2019m making this up, check the stats on average annual vacation days by country:<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Finland<\/span><\/i><\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: 44<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Italy<\/span><\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: 42<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">France<\/span><\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: 39<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Germany<\/span><\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: 35<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">UK<\/span><\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: 25<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Japan<\/span><\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: 18<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">USA<\/span><\/i><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">: 12<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">The fact is, they work you like dogs in the <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>. This should come as no surprise: the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> never got away from the plantation\/sweat shop labor model and any real labor movement was brutally suppressed. Unless you happen to be a member of the ownership class, your options are pretty much limited to barely surviving on service-sector wages or playing musical chairs for a spot in a cubicle (a spot that will be outsourced to <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">India<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> next week anyway). The very best you can hope for is to get a professional degree and then milk the system for a slice of the middle-class pie. And even those who claw their way into the middle class are but one illness or job loss away from poverty. Your jobs aren\u2019t secure. Your company has no loyalty to you. They\u2019ll play you off against your coworkers for as long as it suits them, then they\u2019ll get rid of you.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Of course, you don\u2019t have any choice in the matter: the system is designed this way. In most countries in the developed world, higher education is either free or heavily subsidized; in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, a university degree can set you back over US$100,000. Thus, you enter the working world with a crushing debt. Forget about taking a year off to travel the world and find yourself \u2013 you\u2019ve got to start working or watch your credit rating plummet.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If you\u2019re \u201clucky,\u201d you might even land a job good enough to qualify you for a home loan. And then you\u2019ll spend half your working life just paying the interest on the loan \u2013 welcome to the world of American debt slavery. <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> has the illusion of great wealth because there\u2019s a lot of \u201cstuff\u201d around, but who really owns it? In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in <st1:city w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Manila<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, because at least they have no debts. If they want to pack up and leave, they can; if you want to leave, you can\u2019t, because you\u2019ve got debts to pay.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">All this begs the question: Why would anyone put up with this? Ask any American and you\u2019ll get the same answer: because <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is the freest country on earth. If you believe this, I\u2019ve got some more bad news for you: <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">And that\u2019s just physical freedom. Mentally, you are truly imprisoned. You don\u2019t even know the degree to which you are tormented by fears of medical bankruptcy, job loss, homelessness and violent crime because you\u2019ve never lived in a country where there is no need to worry about such things.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">But it goes much deeper than mere surveillance and anxiety. The fact is, you are not free because your country has been taken over and occupied by another government. Fully 70% of your tax dollars go to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon is the real government of the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. You are required under pain of death to pay taxes to this occupying government. If you\u2019re from the less fortunate classes, you are also required to serve and die in their endless wars, or send your sons and daughters to do so. You have no choice in the matter: there is a socio-economic draft system in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> that provides a steady stream of cannon fodder for the military.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If you call a life of surveillance, anxiety and ceaseless toil in the service of a government you didn\u2019t elect \u201cfreedom,\u201d then you and I have a very different idea of what that word means.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If there was some chance that the country could be changed, there might be reason for hope. But can you honestly look around and conclude that anything is going to change? Where would the change come from? The people? Take a good look at your compatriots: the working class in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> has been brutally propagandized by jackals like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O\u2019Reilly and Sean Hannity. Members of the working class have been taught to lick the boots of their masters and then bend over for another kick in the ass. They\u2019ve got these people so well trained that they\u2019ll take up arms against the other half of the working class as soon as their masters give the word.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If the people cannot make a change, how about the media? Not a chance. From Fox News to the New York Times, the mass media in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is nothing but the public relations wing of the corporatocracy, primarily the military industrial complex. At least the citizens of the former <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Soviet Union<\/st1:place> knew that their news was bullshit. In <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>, you grow up thinking you\u2019ve got a free media, which makes the propaganda doubly effective. If you don\u2019t think American media is mere corporate propaganda, ask yourself the following question: have you ever heard a major American news outlet suggest that the country could fund a single-payer health system by cutting military spending?<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If change can\u2019t come from the people or the media, the only other potential source of change would be the politicians. Unfortunately, the American political process is among the most corrupt in the world. In every country on earth, one expects politicians to take bribes from the rich. But this generally happens in secret, behind the closed doors of their elite clubs. In the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, this sort of political corruption is done in broad daylight, as part of legal, accepted, standard operating procedure. In the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, they merely call these bribes campaign donations, political action committees and lobbyists. One can no more expect the politicians to change this system than one can expect a man to take an axe and chop his own legs out from underneath him.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">No, the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United   States of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is not going to change for the better. The only change will be for the worse. And when I say worse, I mean much worse. As we speak, the economic system that sustained the country during the post-war years is collapsing. The <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">United  States<\/st1:country-region> maxed out its \u201ccredit card\u201d sometime in 2008 and now its lenders, starting with <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">China<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, are in the process of laying the foundations for a new monetary system to replace the Anglo-American \u201cpetro-dollar\u201d system. As soon as there is a viable alternative to the US dollar, the greenback will sink like a stone.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">While the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United   States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> was running up crushing levels of debt, it was also busy shipping its manufacturing jobs and white-collar jobs overseas, and letting its infrastructure fall to pieces. Meanwhile, Asian and European countries were investing in education, infrastructure and raw materials. Even if the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:country-region> tried to rebuild a real economy (as opposed to a service\/financial economy) do think American workers would ever be able to compete with the workers of <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">China<\/st1:country-region> or <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Europe<\/st1:place>? Have you ever seen a Japanese or German factory? Have you ever met a Singaporean or Chinese worker?<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">There are only two possible futures facing the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, and neither one is pretty. The best case is a slow but orderly decline \u2013 essentially a continuation of what\u2019s been happening for the last two decades. Wages will drop, unemployment will rise, Medicare and Social Security benefits will be slashed, the currency will decline in value, and the disparity of wealth will spiral out of control until the United States starts to resemble Mexico or the Philippines \u2013 tiny islands of wealth surrounded by great poverty (the country is already halfway there).<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Equally likely is a sudden collapse, perhaps brought about by a rapid flight from the US dollar by creditor nations like <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">China<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Japan<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Korea<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> and the OPEC nations. A related possibility would be a default by the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> government on its vast debt. One look at the financial balance sheet of the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">US<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> government should convince you how likely this is: governmental spending is skyrocketing and tax receipts are plummeting \u2013 something has to give. If either of these scenarios plays out, the resulting depression will make the present recession look like a walk in the park.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Whether the collapse is gradual or gut-wrenchingly sudden, the results will be chaos, civil strife and fascism. Let\u2019s face it: the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:country-region> is like the former <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Yugoslavia<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> \u2013 a collection of mutually antagonistic cultures united in name only. You\u2019ve got your own version of the Taliban: right-wing Christian fundamentalists who actively loathe the idea of secular Constitutional government. You\u2019ve got a vast intellectual underclass that has spent the last few decades soaking up Fox News and talk radio propaganda, eager to blame the collapse on Democrats, gays and immigrants. You\u2019ve got a ruthless ownership class that will use all the means at its disposal to protect its wealth from the starving masses.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">On top of all that you\u2019ve got vast factory farms, sprawling suburbs and a truck-based shipping system, all of it entirely dependent on oil that is about to become completely unaffordable. And you\u2019ve got guns. Lots of guns. In short: the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United   States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is about to become a very unwholesome place to be.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Right now, the government is building fences and walls along its northern and southern borders. Right now, the government is working on a national ID system (soon to be fitted with biometric features). Right now, the government is building a surveillance state so extensive that they will be able to follow your every move, online, in the street and across borders. If you think this is just to protect you from \u201cterrorists,\u201d then you\u2019re sadly mistaken. Once the shit really hits the fan, do you really think you\u2019ll just be able to jump into the old station wagon, drive across the Canadian border and spend the rest of your days fishing and drinking Molson? No, the government is going to lock the place down. They don\u2019t want their tax base escaping. They don\u2019t want their \u201crecruits\u201d escaping. They don\u2019t want YOU escaping.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">I am not writing this to scare you. I write this to you as a friend. If you are able to read and understand what I\u2019ve written here, then you are a member of a small minority in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. You are a minority in a country that has no place for you.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">So what should you do?<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">You should leave the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United States of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">If you\u2019re young, you\u2019ve got plenty of choices: you can teach English in the Middle East, Asia or <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Europe<\/st1:place>. Or you can go to university or graduate school abroad and start building skills that will qualify you for a work visa. If you\u2019ve already got some real work skills, you can apply to emigrate to any number of countries as a skilled immigrant. If you are older and you\u2019ve got some savings, you can retire to a place like <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Costa Rica<\/st1:country-region> or the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Philippines<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. If you can\u2019t qualify for a work, student or retirement visa, don\u2019t let that stop you \u2013 travel on a tourist visa to a country that appeals to you and talk to the expats you meet there. Whatever you do, go speak to an immigration lawyer as soon as you can. Find out exactly how to get on a path that will lead to permanent residence and eventually citizenship in the country of your choice.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">You will not be alone. There are millions of Americans just like me living outside the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United   States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. Living lives much more fulfilling, peaceful, free and abundant than we ever could have attained back home. Some of us happened upon these lives by accident \u2013 we tried a year abroad and found that we liked it \u2013 others made a conscious decision to pack up and leave for good. You\u2019ll find us in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Canada<\/st1:country-region>, all over Europe, in many parts of Asia, in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Australia<\/st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">New Zealand<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, and in most other countries of the globe. Do we miss our friends and family? Yes. Do we occasionally miss aspects of our former country? Yes. Do we plan on ever living again in the <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">United   States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>? Never. And those of us with permanent residence or citizenship can sponsor family members from back home for long-term visas in our adopted countries.<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><br \/><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">In closing, I want to remind you of something: unless you are an American Indian or a descendant of slaves, at some point your ancestors chose to leave their homeland in search of a better life. They weren\u2019t traitors and they weren\u2019t bad people, they just wanted a better life for themselves and their families. Isn\u2019t it time that you continue their journey?<\/span><\/i><i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-family: Arial;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img width='1' height='1' src='https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/1752027331714385066-767268682828103831?l=globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com' alt='' \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I will not ask you to buy into every statement made in this article.&nbsp; Yet it should make one take note.&nbsp; Most of us understand our country and our lives at a local level only.&nbsp; You understand your home and workplace and you understand paying your bills.&nbsp; And family matters for most. Good medical care [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}