This writer pretty much sums it up!

Published: March 4, 2008

Welcome to the Third World: America

Jim Horn

When I was a boy growing up in a middle class blue collar neighborhood in the 1950s Minneapolis, I discovered pizza, a new cultural import from Italy.

There weren’t many imports around then. All of my neighbors worked, most in making things, a lot of which were exported. Aside from modified pizzas, the only other imports around were an occasional Volvo, a VW, one guy who drove a Messerschmitt, and cheap Japanese made trinkets and toys intermingled with French souvenirs, and Norwegian skis. Nearly everything was American made, and it was readily available to hard working Americans.



America was vibrant. We kids could go out at dawn and play until dusk unmonitored with little risk from predators. My teachers exercised corporal measures towards classroom miscreants. I did learn – I didn’t like the alternative – lumps on my head. If I complained at home, I just got whupped for acting up at school. My teachers were trusted – because they were trustworthy. They were honored and respected



America had won the Second World War. America had stopped the march of communism in Korea. With American support, the Greeks had beaten back the Communists, over there.



I graduated from high school in 1960 and went out into the world. I had a job the next day. There was no putzing around in and out of college for a half-dozen years. Many years have since passed. Our educational, religious, business (including unions), and political leaders have successfully dumbed down my wonderful America. They have created some of the greatest levels of institutionalized ineptitude, corruption, crime, and greed on earth. Real jobs have been exported. The once vibrant factories are relics. I am hard pressed to find Made in America products on the shelves.



President Truman retired to his modest Kansas home, and Ike retired to a small farm – neither of them terribly enriched by their stay in the White House. They were honorable and highly respected men.



Things have changed. t now costs a quarter of a billion dollars to buy – yes, to purchase “electionâ€