【文/THE EUROPEAN，译/观察者网 由冠群】

美国正活在泡沫中。好莱坞电影、美国歌曲和美国政客告诉美国人民，他们生活在地球上最伟大的国家。然而在现实中，美国有很多严重的问题亟待解决。这就是我制作这段视频的原因。在本视频节目中，我会给你们11个理由，证明为什么美国不是地球上最伟大的国家。

美国正活在泡沫中。好莱坞告诉美国人，他们的国家是地球上最伟大的国家。《壮志凌云》、《变形金刚》、《洛杉矶之战》、《红色黎明》、《美国狙击手》、《铁鹰战士》、《珍珠港》和《独立日》等电影，都在美化美国的军事力量和美国的军事暴力。许多美国电影把俄罗斯人描绘成邪恶的人，把非洲人描绘成贫穷和堕落的人，把墨西哥人和拉丁美洲人描绘成罪犯，把印度人描绘成傻瓜。数百万美国人看了这些电影，并有点相信电影所传达出的种族主义信息。并非秘密的是，美国军方和美国军工界正在向好莱坞支付数百万美元去美化美国，把美国士兵刻画的极其英勇，把美国的军事行动描绘成正义的事业，而不论现实是美国正在轰炸全世界的无辜人民。

这种泡沫还出现在美国的音乐文化中。像《生活在美国》和《上帝保佑美国》这样的歌曲都在告诉美国人他们是多么伟大，以及他们生活在一个多么伟大的国家。在这些歌曲演奏时，我们通常会看到众多巨幅美国国旗缓慢挥舞的画面。但事实上，美国在很多层面都彻底失败了。我知道我会因为这个视频节目而惹来很多争议，但我需要说出所有污点，许多美国政客和媒体人为了让美国梦继续存在并使他们的选民和粉丝开心而乐于掩盖的污点。因此，今天我将向你们提出11个理由以证明美国不是地球上最伟大的国家。

理由1，贫困和无家可归。我已经在我的几个视频节目中讲过这个问题。占美国总人口63%的2亿美国人靠薪水生活。他们根本不知道自己是否能支付下个月的租金。而有惊人数量的美国人，至少50万人甚至更多生活在如洛杉矶这样城市的街头贫民窟中。这是一场彻头彻尾的灾难。YouTube上有数百个视频节目在讲这个问题，向你展示出清晰证据，证明洛杉矶的街道与第三世界的贫民窟一模一样。

美国流浪人口数量庞大

理由2，低工资。美国的实际最低工资是11.80美元，这听起来可能是合理的。但在现实中，这意味着许多美国人根本不能靠这种薪酬生活。洛杉矶一套普通公寓的租金每月超过2300美元。即使你可以把所有最低工资收入都存下来，只是为了支付房租，那也不够。在像旧金山、纽约这样的城市，情况会更糟。

这就引出了第3个理由，债务危机。80%的美国人生活在债务中。他们有信用卡贷款、汽车贷款、学生贷款、个人贷款等等。美国的整个金融体系不是建立在量入为出基础上的。而是建立在寅吃卯粮基础上的。只会产生越来越多的债务。在美国，债务是一种病，它是由全球负债最多的美国政府促成的。正如我们所说，美国有28万亿美元的债务。你真的认为美国有可能偿还这28万亿美元吗？总有一天，美国的整个金融体系都会崩溃。在2008年，这一崩溃几乎就要发生了，当时美国引发了一场全球金融危机。13年后，许多国家仍在处理这场危机的后遗症。这场危机甚至为中国创造了一个宝贵机会，使中国的影响力辐射到许多国家。美国政客现在正抱怨这一点，而这正是因他们自己管理不善造成的。当然，由于美国仍有28万亿美元的债务，这个问题只会变得更糟，所以你们要做好准备去迎接美国的下一场金融危机,因为下一场危机有可能会毁掉强大的美元。

第4个理由是，美国还有另一种全国性的疾病，叫做肥胖症。超过42%的美国人肥胖。肥胖症使美国损失了1500亿美元。此外，肥胖症每年都会导致数百万美国人生病。他们会患上各种各样的心脏病和糖尿病。现在甚至有数百万美国儿童也患上了肥胖症。为什么全世界最伟大的国家需要有这么多肥胖症患者？

第5个理由，要说到健康，大约有3000万美国人没有任何医疗保险。他们甚至避免去看医生，因为他们付不起诊疗费。为什么美国政府不处理这件事？在欧洲和亚洲的许多国家，政府为每个公民都安排了一个不错的医疗计划。为什么美国就不能这样呢？

理由6，生活质量低下。在互联网上找那些生活质量最高国家的名单或排名。在这些名单上都找不到美国。通常你会在这些名单上看到这些国家，瑞典、丹麦、加拿大、荷兰、奥地利、瑞士、挪威、芬兰，但没有美国。大规模调查告诉你，美国的生活质量不够高，犯罪数量太多，不平等太多，污染，种族主义和暴力泛滥等等。是的，这意味着我还要讲另一些问题。让我们继续。

理由7，暴力。许多美国人为他们的宪法第二修正案感到自豪，该修正案赋予他们携带枪支的权利。他们认为这将有助于他们确保国家的安全。不对，你们这些傻瓜。一旦你允许使用枪支，你就会遇到枪支犯罪，因为别人会用枪来对付你，如果他们想的话。这将导致一场永无休止的军备竞赛。现在美国平民手中有3.93亿支枪，占全世界所有民用枪支的40%。难怪美国是世界上最暴力的国家之一。美国的杀人和持枪暴力犯罪水平是世界上最高的。如果你随机给人分发数百万支枪，你会期望遇到什么？现在欧洲并不完美，但当谈到欧洲枪支问题时，我们有一个简单的规则——拥有枪支是非法的。在大多数欧洲国家，市面上基本没有枪。如果你有枪，你很可能是罪犯，警察会来抓你的。结果是，在大多数欧洲国家，市面是安全的。没有人拿着枪到处乱跑。

理由8，交通堵塞和糟糕的道路。具有讽刺意味的是，在一个如此空旷的国家，在一个原本为汽车运输开路的国家，现在却出现了如此多的交通拥堵现象。洛杉矶和许多其他美国城市因交通堵塞而臭名昭著。更具讽刺意味的是，在许多美国城市，道路几乎得不到维护。任何人都可以在谷歌街景中看到，美国的众多道路有多糟糕。应该花在美国公路上的钱花到哪里去了？我甚至还没有详细说明美国铁路的糟糕状况。整个美国只有一条高速铁路线。与此同时，欧洲和亚洲的许多国家都通过舒适、干净和稠密的高速铁路将其所有主要城市连接起来。为什么这在美国做不到？

第9个理由，假民主。大约两个世纪以来，美国只有两个政党可供选择。现在，独立候选人竞选公职面临巨大障碍。这不是民主。民主是任何人只要想成立一个政党，就可以加入政治体系。然后，如果有人有好的想法，人民可以投票给这些人。许多欧洲和亚洲国家就是这样安排民主制度的。为什么美国还不是一个成熟的民主国家？你有两个世纪的时间来处理这个问题。答案，我们当然都知道。美国的控制者是一群精英人物，由富有和有权势的家族构成，他们希望限制政治圈的规模。他们不希望你有机会自由选择你想要的政治家，因为他们无法控制这种情况。

美国政治陷入分裂之中

理由10，有限的言论自由。越来越清楚的是，在美国，言论自由正受到威胁。如果你发表不正确的意见，大型媒体公司将阻止你发言或取消你发言的资格。我确实意识到这些美国大媒体公司，它们不是政府，所以它们的审查不是官方的，也不是集权风格的，但现在越来越难以区分美国和集权政体对言论自由的限制有何区别。

理由11，战争贩子。在过去的75年里，美国一直是世界上最具侵略性的国家之一。说到发动战争，美国攻击主权国家的战争和冲突数不胜数。在某些情况下，理由是相当荒谬的。发动战争使美国人民损失了数万亿美元。难怪许多美国人都受够了这一点，而美国新总统仅仅在他执政的第五周就向中东投下了炸弹，这让人感到非常遗憾。我以为美国人选他当总统是因为他会将所有人团结起来。

我已经给了你们11个理由以证明美国为什么不是全世界最伟大的国家，但在我的文章里还有另外11个理由。对，还有更多：

美国完全无法应对新冠病毒疫情，这个理由如何？美国是世界上监禁人口最多的国家，这一事实可不可以做理由？种族主义、污染和腐败这个理由？大规模枪击、国内恐怖主义和广泛的药物滥用如何？一个世纪以来，美国一直通过在世界各地建立军事基地和展开军事行动来实施新殖民主义政策，这一理由又如何呢？美国一直在消耗世界各国的自然资源，这一理由如何呢？美国已经发展成为一个分裂的国家，当人们持枪包围美国国会时，美国甚至似乎已处于内战的边缘，这一事实可做理由吗？我的意思是，通常你只会在美国称之为香蕉共和国（指南美国家）的国家看到这样的事件。美国政府官员对龙卷风、洪水和野火的反应如何？由于出现了几天恶劣天气，强大的德克萨斯州几乎毁于一旦，电力供应都中断了，这一事实可做理由吗？对同性恋的不宽容可做理由吗？歌颂枪支、暴力和物化女性的美式音乐文化可做理由吗？那么，严重损害美国儿童发展机会的糟糕教育体系可做理由吗？美国人沉迷于社交媒体，并将他们的灵魂和个人数据卖给美国社交媒体可做理由吗？说客付钱给美国政客以换取于己有利的法律法规，这一事实可做理由吗？头脑正常的人怎么会认为美国是世界上最伟大的国家？

美国正活在泡沫中。总有一天，它会破裂。

Hello, I am the European and I make videos that matter to you. Thank you for watching. America is living in a bubble. Hollywood movies, American songs and American politicians tell the American people that they live in the greatest country on earth. While in reality, there are so many serious problems in America that need to be addressed. That's why I made this video in which I give you 11 reasons why America is not the greatest country on earth. Now, if you think it is important that I spread my message to a bigger audience, then please smash that like button and subscribe to my channel. If you do that, YouTube will show this video to even more people. Thank you very much. With that out of the way, let's continue.

America is living in a bubble. Hollywood tells Americans that their country is the greatest country on earth. Movies like Top Gun, Transformers, Battle Los Angeles, Red Dawn, American Sniper, Iron Eagle, Pearl Harbor and Independence Day glorify American military force and American military violence.Many American movies portray people from Russia as evil, people from Africa as poor and corrupt, people from Mexico and Latin America as criminal, and people from India as plainly stupid, millions of Americans watch these movies and kind of believe the racist message behind it. It is no secret that the American military and the American military industry are paying Hollywood millions of dollars to glorify the USA, to portray American soldiers as extremely heroic and American military operations as a just cause no matter the reality of dropping bombs on innocent people all over the world.

The bubble continues in American music culture. Songs like Living in America and God Bless the USA are all telling Americans how great they are and what a great country they live in. When these songs are performed, we are usually treated with images of huge American flags waving in slow motion. But in reality, the USA totally fails on many levels. I know I'm going to get a lot of debate because of this video, but I need to speak out about all the dirt that many American politicians and media personalities gladly sweep under the carpet to keep the American dream alive and to keep their voters and fans happy. Therefore, today I will present you 11 reasons why America is not the greatest country on earth.

Reason number one, poverty and homelessness. I have dealt with this in several of my videos. 200 million Americans that is 63% of the population, they live paycheck to paycheck. They simply don't know if they can pay their rent for the next month. And an alarming number of Americans at least half 1 million and probably a lot more are living in slums on the streets, in cities like Los Angeles. This is a complete disaster. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube dealing with this problem and showing you crystal clear evidence that the streets of Los Angeles are exactly like a third world slum.

Reason number two, low wages. The effective minimum wage in America is $11.80 that may sound reasonable. But in reality, it means that many Americans simply can't live on that kind of payment. The rent for an average apartment in Los Angeles is over $2,300 per month. Even if you could set aside a full minimum wage income, just to pay for that rent, that wouldn't be enough. In places like San Francisco, in New York city, it is even worse. That brings us to the number three, the debt crisis. 80 % of Americans are living in debt. They have credit card loans, car loans, student loans, personal loans, et cetera. The whole financial system of America is not based upon spending money you have. It is based upon spending money you don't have by getting more and more loans. Debt is a disease in America, and it is enabled and encouraged by the US government that has the largest national debt in the whole world. As we speak, America is $28 trillion US dollars in debt. Do you really think it is even possible that these $28 trillion are ever going to be repaid? One day, the whole financial system of America will collapse. It almost happened in 2008 when America gave the world a global financial crisis. 13 years later, many countries still struggle with the consequences of that crisis. It even created a golden opportunity for China to get many countries within its realm of influence. And American politicians are now complaining about that while it is the result of their own mis-management. Of course, since America still has $28 trillion US dollars in debt, the problem has only gone worse, so brace yourself for the next financial crisis in America because that one might break the mighty US dollar.

Reason number four, then there is another national disease in America. It's called obesity. Over 42 % of Americans are obese. Obesity is costing America $150 billion US dollars. Each year, additionally, obesity causes millions of Americans to get ill. They get all kinds of heart diseases and diabetes. Even millions of American children are now obese. Why is that needed in the greatest country in the world?

Reason number five, speaking of health, about 30 million Americans do not have any health insurance. They even avoid going to a doctor because they can't pay for it. Why doesn't the American government take care of this? In many countries, all over Europe and Asia, governments arrange for a decent health-care program for everyone. Why can't that be the case in America?

Reason number six, low quality of life. Find any list or ranking on the internet of countries with the highest quality of life. And America is not on that list. Usually you will see countries on those lists like sweden, denmark, canada, the netherlands, austria, switzerland, norway, finland, but not America. Large scale surveys tell you, America simply has not enough quality of life, too much crime, too much inequality, pollution, racism violence, et cetera. Yes, that means I've got some more issues to cover. Let's continue.

Reason number seven, violence. So many Americans are proud of their second amendment, which gives them the right to bear and carry firearms. They think it will help them to keep the country safer. No, you fools. Once you allow guns, you are going to meet them because people are going to use them against you if they feel like it. It has resulted in a never-ending arms race. There are now 393 million guns in the hands of American civilians that is 40 % of all these civilian guns in the whole world. No wonder America is one of the most violent countries in the world. Homicide and gun violence levels in America are among the highest in the world. What would you expect if you give random people millions of guns? Now Europe is not perfect, but when it comes to guns in Europe, we have a simple rule - guns are illegal. There are basically no guns on the streets in most European countries. If you do have a gun, you are very likely a criminal and the police will come for you. The result is that in most European countries, the streets are safe. There are no people running around with guns.

Reason number eight, traffic jams and bad roads. It is ironic that in a country where there is so much room, a country that was designed to make way for transport by car, there is now so much traffic congestion. Los Angeles and many other American cities are infamous for their traffic jams. It's even more ironic that in many American cities, roads are hardly maintained. Anyone can see in Google street view, how bad many of the American roads are. Where is the money going to that should be spent on American roads? I'm not even elaborating on the poor status of the American railroads. There is only one high speed rail connection in the entire USA. At the same time, many countries all over Europe and Asia connect all of their major cities with comfortable, clean and frequent high-speed rail connections. Why isn't this possible in America?

Reason number nine, fake democracy. America has only two political parties to choose from for about two centuries. Now, there are huge barriers for independent candidates to run for office. That is not democracy. Democracy is that anyone who wants to start a political party can be admitted to the political system. And then the people can vote for them if they have good ideas. That is how democracy is arranged in many European and Asian countries. Why is America still not a mature democracy? You had two centuries to take care of that. The answer, of course, we all know. America is managed by a corporate elite of rich and powerful families who would like to limit the scope of the political landscape. They don't want you to have the opportunity to freely choose whatever politician you want, because they can't control that.

Reason number ten, limited freedom of speech. It has become more and more clear that in America, freedom of speech is under threat. If you don't proclaim the right opinion, the large media companies will block or cancel you. I do realize that these big American media companies, they are not the government, so it's not official censorship, communist style, but it's getting increasingly hard to distinguish today situation in America from the way communist regimes deal with opinions that they don't like.

Reason number 11, war mongers. For the past 75 years, the USA has been one of the most aggressive countries in the world. When it comes to waging wars, there is an endless list of wars and conflicts in which America attacked a sovereign nation. In some cases, the reasons were pretty ridiculous. Waging wars has costed the American people trillions of dollars. No wonder that many Americans are fed up with this, and such a shame that the new American president has dropped bombs on the middle east, only in his 5th week in office. I thought America elected him because he would unite everyone.

I have given you 11 reasons why America is not the greatest country in the world, but there are still 11 more reasons on my piece of paper. Yes. There is even more. How about the completely incompetent response of America to the Covid pandemic? How about the fact that America has the largest prison population in the world? How about the racism, the pollution, and the corruption? How about the mass shootings, the domestic terrorism, and the widespread drug abuse? How about the fact that America for a century now has been implementing a policy of neocolonialism by establishing military branches and operations all over the world? How about the fact that America has been depleting natural resources from countries all over the world? How about the fact that America has developed into a divided nation that even appeared to be on the brink of a civil war when people with guns sieged the American parliament? I mean normally you would only see that in the kind of countries that America would call a banana republic. How about the poor response of American government officials to tornadoes, and floods, and wildfires? How about the fact that the mighty state of Texas almost perished and had no more electricity because of a few days of bad weather? How about the intolerance towards homosexuals? How about American music culture, glorifying gun, violence, and objectifying women? How about the poor American education system that greatly damages the opportunities of American children? How about Americans being addicted to and selling their soul and personal data to the American social media? How about the fact that lobbyists pay American politicians in return for favorable laws and regulations? How can anyone in their right mind think that America is the greatest country in the world? America is living in a bubble. And one day, it's going to explode. 

（观察者网由冠群听译自"THE EUROPEAN"视频频道）

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