The one in which I'm on my cranky soap box

This is quite the surprising realization, but for the first time in the past five years, I no longer feel at home here in the US. I don't identify with these people, with this life. Living in France has changed me, more than I ever realized. I don't know, I don't want to live in a society of mass-consumerism, where the government makes you feel guilty if you don't spend every cent you have. Going to people's houses, I'm just amazed by how much STUFF they have. Stuff, and more stuff, everywhere. If there's anything I've learned these past few weeks, it's that stuff is just that - stuff. It cannot make you happy, and it's actually quite freeing once you get rid of it.

This whole culture of lower and lower prices is so frustrating. Don't people realize that by constantly demanding lower prices, we're just forcing more and more jobs out of the US? And screwing over some other country in the process? That there are actual people making these products, and that our insistence on low prices means they're barely subsisting? There's a new Walmart in my town, and I refuse to set a foot in it. I don't want to take advantage of the low dollar if it means supporting global conglomerates like that. Sure they've brought jobs in to town, but how many have been lost due to small businesses closing because they can't compete price-wise?

Even though I don't have much money, I'd much prefer to pay more and buy something that was made in the US (or France, etc), and know that the employees were being paid a decent wage. BIC is a good example - most of of their products are still made in France, and Fab and I always tried to buy other items made in France when possible. Unfortunately though, the French are becoming more and more Americanized and are starting to demand lower prices as well, which, combined with the high taxes, is resulting in more and more French companies moving out of France to either Eastern Europe or Asia in order to be able to cut costs. Something we should all be asking ourselves - are those lower prices worth the jobs lost?

And don't even get me started on the health care issue - we call ourselves the greatest nation in the world, yet we can't even provide basic health care to our citizens. I find it extremely irresponsible of our government. Not to mention that like the low-price/délocalisation issue, it's just an endless cycle. Health care costs keep rising, more and more people can't afford it & thus go to the emergency room, they can't pay the bill so the hospital passes it on the insurance comapny, who then passes the costs onto their clients, who then can't afford to pay for insurance and we're right back where we started. Our health care system is spiraling out of control.

Some of you might not agree with some or all of this, and that's just fine - you're all entitled to your own opinions, but these issues are what have been playing and replaying in my mind these past few days (along with Bigger is not indeed Better). It's so funny, I've been dying to move back to the US for the past five years, and now that I have the chance, I don't want to take it. Maybe I'll be ready after I've had a few months to get used to the idea, but this is how I'm feeling now. It's taken losing Fab and our future to finally make me realize that France actually is my home.

(Don't worry, the irony of this all is not lost on me.)