America Has Become a Country of Mediocrity

Let me be clear, I love my country and feel blessed to have been born here. But something has happened in the past 39 years that just pisses me off. Somehow the greatest nation in the history of mankind has degenerated into a nation of slackers. Think about it. Look at the company you work for. If you show up everyday on time and do your job you're probably in the top 10-20% of employees, right? I know that's the case with my company, at least in the non-commission based positions. How many times have you paid good money for an average meal at a restaurant? How many times have you suffered through poor service at the same restaurant? How many times have you been talked down to by your child's $40k per year school teacher? How many times have you mailed something only to have it lost? But we seem to have been conditioned to just accept mediocrity...even be happy with it. How many times have we all said "it could have been worse" when we were unhappy with the performance of someone we were paying to do a job or provide a service? What happened?

The United States used to be a country where excellence was rewarded, where a college dropout could become a billionaire...if he had the right idea and the willingness to work for it. Now it's a country where high school dropouts buy lottery tickets hoping to pay off the mortgage on their mobile home. Hell, we just elected a President who's resume wouldn't get him a night manager job at a Taco Bell.

I can't imagine what my grandfather would think of all this if he were alive today. And for once I don't have a very good answer as to how to fix it. But we better find a way to fix it, because we're still the last bastion of "hope" left on the planet. And if we're willing to accept becoming another England or France, then eventually freedom and liberty will disappear from the planet for another few hundred years. Let's try and not let that happen. Maybe we should start with our own children. Just a thought.