Formerly fmonster; it's been a long-drawn absence from writing. Since I am still in a place where I can't contribute any of my own writing, I want to share a very important article. It's the quick-and-dirty about why we need to swiftly get out of the United States permanently. It is especially important for young Americans to read, as most of us are only a few years away from the real beginnings of our lives and starting to make important life-decisions. Soak this shit up, really. It is only a light touch on the surface, so after reading I suggest you do your own research on the dark aspects of America. Also, be serious about the possibility of packing up and crossing the ocean. Forget what your mother says and what is familiar. There is no bright future in staying in America.

Americans, I have some bad news for you:

You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin.

If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d 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.

I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.

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 United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread.

Consider this: you are the only people in the developed world without a single-payer health system. Everyone in Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand 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’t believe for a second that rot about America having the world’s best medical care or the shortest waiting lists: I’ve been to hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, and Thailand, and every one was better than the “good” hospital I used to go to back home. The waits were shorter, the facilities more comfortable, and the doctors just as good.

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.

Let’s 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 United States, 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 United States will be from genetically modified crops, thanks to the cozy relationship between Monsanto Corporation and the United States government. Worse still, due to the vast quantities of high-fructose corn syrup Americans consume, fully one-third of children born in the United States today will be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives.

Of course, it’s not just the food that’s killing you, it’s the drugs. If you show any sign of life when you’re young, they’ll put you on Ritalin. Then, when you get old enough to take a good look around, you’ll get depressed, so they’ll give you Prozac. If you’re a man, this will render you chemically impotent, so you’ll need Viagra to get it up. Meanwhile, your steady diet of trans-fat-laden food is guaranteed to give you high cholesterol, so you’ll get a prescription for Lipitor. Finally, at the end of the day, you’ll lay awake at night worrying about losing your health plan, so you’ll need Lunesta to go to sleep.

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’t take one. I’ll 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’ll probably be the only American in sight. And you’ll be surrounded crowds of happy Germans, French, Italians, Israelis, Scandinavians and wealthy Asians. Why? Because they’re paid well enough to afford to visit these places AND they can take vacations long enough to do so. 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.

If you think I’m making this up, check the stats on average annual vacation days by country:

Finland: 44 Italy: 42 France: 39 Germany: 35 UK: 25 Japan: 18 USA: 12

The fact is, they work you like dogs in the United States. This should come as no surprise: the United States 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 India 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’t secure. Your company has no loyalty to you. They’ll play you off against your coworkers for as long as it suits them, then they’ll get rid of you.

Of course, you don’t 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 United States, 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 – you’ve got to start working or watch your credit rating plummet.

If you’re “lucky,” you might even land a job good enough to qualify you for a home loan. And then you’ll spend half your working life just paying the interest on the loan – welcome to the world of American debt slavery. America has the illusion of great wealth because there’s a lot of “stuff” around, but who really owns it? In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila, because at least they have no debts. If they want to pack up and leave, they can; if you want to leave, you can’t, because you’ve got debts to pay.

All this begs the question: Why would anyone put up with this? Ask any American and you’ll get the same answer: because America is the freest country on earth. If you believe this, I’ve got some more bad news for you: America 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.

And that’s just physical freedom. Mentally, you are truly imprisoned. You don’t even know the degree to which you are tormented by fears of medical bankruptcy, job loss, homelessness and violent crime because you’ve never lived in a country where there is no need to worry about such things.

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 United States. You are required under pain of death to pay taxes to this occupying government. If you’re 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 United States that provides a steady stream of cannon fodder for the military.

If you call a life of surveillance, anxiety and ceaseless toil in the service of a government you didn’t elect “freedom,” then you and I have a very different idea of what that word means.

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 United States has been brutally propagandized by jackals like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly 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’ve got these people so well trained that they’ll take up arms against the other half of the working class as soon as their masters give the word.

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 United States is nothing but the public relations wing of the corporatocracy, primarily the military industrial complex. At least the citizens of the former Soviet Union knew that their news was bullshit. In America, you grow up thinking you’ve got a free media, which makes the propaganda doubly effective. If you don’t 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?

If change can’t 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 United States, this sort of political corruption is done in broad daylight, as part of legal, accepted, standard operating procedure. In the United States, 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.

No, the United States of America 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 United States maxed out its “credit card” sometime in 2008 and now its lenders, starting with China, are in the process of laying the foundations for a new monetary system to replace the Anglo-American “petro-dollar” system. As soon as there is a viable alternative to the US dollar, the greenback will sink like a stone.

While the United States 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 United States 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 China or Europe? Have you ever seen a Japanese or German factory? Have you ever met a Singaporean or Chinese worker?

There are only two possible futures facing the United States, and neither one is pretty. The best case is a slow but orderly decline – essentially a continuation of what’s 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 – tiny islands of wealth surrounded by great poverty (the country is already halfway there).

Equally likely is a sudden collapse, perhaps brought about by a rapid flight from the US dollar by creditor nations like China, Japan, Korea and the OPEC nations. A related possibility would be a default by the United States government on its vast debt. One look at the financial balance sheet of the US government should convince you how likely this is: governmental spending is skyrocketing and tax receipts are plummeting – 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.

Whether the collapse is gradual or gut-wrenchingly sudden, the results will be chaos, civil strife and fascism. Let’s face it: the United States is like the former Yugoslavia – a collection of mutually antagonistic cultures united in name only. You’ve got your own version of the Taliban: right-wing Christian fundamentalists who actively loathe the idea of secular Constitutional government. You’ve 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’ve got a ruthless ownership class that will use all the means at its disposal to protect its wealth from the starving masses.

On top of all that you’ve 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’ve got guns. Lots of guns. In short: the United States is about to become a very unwholesome place to be.

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 “terrorists,” then you’re sadly mistaken. Once the shit really hits the fan, do you really think you’ll 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’t want their tax base escaping. They don’t want their “recruits” escaping. They don’t want YOU escaping.

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’ve written here, then you are a member of a small minority in the United States. You are a minority in a country that has no place for you.

So what should you do?

You should leave the United States of America.

If you’re young, you’ve got plenty of choices: you can teach English in the Middle East, Asia or Europe. Or you can go to university or graduate school abroad and start building skills that will qualify you for a work visa. If you’ve 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’ve got some savings, you can retire to a place like Costa Rica or the Philippines. If you can’t qualify for a work, student or retirement visa, don’t let that stop you – 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.

You will not be alone. There are millions of Americans just like me living outside the United States. 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 – we tried a year abroad and found that we liked it – others made a conscious decision to pack up and leave for good. You’ll find us in Canada, all over Europe, in many parts of Asia, in Australia and New Zealand, 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 United States? 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.

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’t traitors and they weren’t bad people, they just wanted a better life for themselves and their families. Isn’t it time that you continue their journey?

The name of the writer has not been released and the release of his pen name has only brought trouble, so I cannot properly give anyone credit.

I guess whoever started that notion must be proud, because that idea has spread like wildfire. When Christmas came around, that's all people said. Now it's Valentine's Day, and the idea that "It shouldn't just be today, we have 364 other days in the year to show our appreciation!" has been revived.

It's a recycled idea that people use to try to sound clever, different, and not like a spoiled brat who follows the holidays. To me, saying that just makes you more of a brat. And after hearing it one too many times this weekend I couldn't help but to say, "If that's really what you think, why don't you treat every day like Christmas and bring me a fucking present every day." It's not going to happen. Whoever made the holidays knew we weren't going to bring the people we love presents, roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and candy-canes to people 365 days a year. We don't have enough time, money, or appreciation to do that. And even if we did, it'd get old after day 75. The holidays as they are now serve a purpose. If you treated every day like a holiday, they would suddenly hold none.

Teenagers are in dire need of learning how to accept things the way that they are. That means also accepting that you are different than everybody else, but not in any special kind of way. Yeah you're different, but so is she, and so is he, and her too. You don't need to go above and beyond and make all these remarks that are not at all practical to try to be different. Why do I care? Because it's teenagers who need so much to be seen as special by their peers that make things like the holidays overrated. And I have something against anybody who tries to make Christmas become overrated.

People use their walls as a radar. It's used to measure other peoples' sincerity and persistence: if you get past an inch of brick you must not give a fuck about me, but if you bring down the whole damn thing, you must be a keeper. When mixed with immaturity, walls are also used to play hard-to-get. People who put up walls by choice do not use it to protect their feelings but to see who will bother to break it down. These people need to get real, because no one wants to use their time and energy to climb over the Great Wall of China. And definitely not for somebody who dropped it there on purpose. It's wrong to purposely put up a barrier because it means that you are putting somebody to a test. You're making it difficult for the other person while you just kick back and lean against your wall. In friendship and in love, no one likes to be tested. Not to mention that it's arrogant to think that people need to go through great lengths just to get to know something about you.

When it's involuntary, walls are just insecurities. Whatever your wall is hiding, it's something you don't necessarily want people to know. And usually it's not just a small secret, walls are associated with shielding a big part who you are. You're scared to get to know someone who will inevitably fuck with you, scared to let someone in who will walk out. It's understandable. But you still need to get over it. It's not enough to just recognize that you have a wall up and apologize for it. You have to fix it if you want to grow as a person and have good relationships. Insecurities are unattractive. Walls are unattractive. Whether it's voluntary or involuntary, the majority of the time people will not take the time to break through your little maze and end up just saying fuck it.

If there is somebody trying to get to know you and you have a wall up, it's your responsibility. It's inconsiderate to expect the other person to climb over something that you built. They've already taken the time to voice their interest and made their efforts. Like TJ said, relationships are a two-way street. You gotta give a little. So get the fuck over your own wall, don't expect the other person to do it. Happiness could lie on the other side, whereas your side only holds loneliness and insecurity.

I know. That's trivial, right. Not something that anyone should want to live by. But it's not just a hip-hop reference to me and 50 Cent is not my role model. Neither do I view the phrase as a motto with the main goal being greed of material possessions. I never had a personal quote, but if I have to choose one this one is as good as any 'cause money is my biggest aim in the world.

Greed is looked down upon, so obviously the fact that I revolve my life around money and how I'm going to be successful in obtaining it in very, very large amounts makes me as selfish and superficial as possible. But money is not just money. Buying expensive shit with it is not it's only use.

Money is freedom. It plays a very big part, possibly even the only part, on how free you can really be. Yes this is the land of opportunity, 21 is the age of liberation, and you can do whatever you want when the right time comes. But how far can your freedom take you on $5? Or even $5,000? If that's all you got, you're not going anywhere and you're not doing anything. You have all the freedom in the world, but not enough money to do anything useful with it. You might as well be 12 again.

Real freedom would be deciding one day that I want to be eating a baguette in France and being there within 24 hours. Real freedom is going shopping and not being afraid to buy everything I like in every single color. Real freedom does not have to be only beneficial to me; real freedom is being able to drop a couple thousand on the less fortunate and not worry about how that'll effect my life and my financial standing. I can give freely, spend freely, and travel freely. However I choose to live, I can make it happen. I can afford to. I don't have to cut back and budget my dreams, goals, or desires.

There are so many things that wealthy people can do that, well, only wealthy people can do. Try to be homeless and decide you want to walk around naked in public. It's not happening. But if you have enough money to get yourself a place, you are free to walk around in the nude as much as you want in your own quarters. It's a step up when you're rich as fuck. I mean, Lady Gaga walks around with her ass hanging out and it's more than okay, it's a fashion statement that is often encouraged.

Money can't buy happiness? I can sort of stand by that. No, money will never buy you direct happiness. But if you have a shit load of money and you're not happy, truth is that you're spending it on the wrong fucking things. People aren't happy because they can't find love: If you're rich, dress yourself the fuck up and make yourself presentable inside and out, and you'll find it. People aren't happy because they can't make their dreams come true: If you're rich, what dream can't you make come true? Buy that boutique you've always wanted to own, go to school to be the brain surgeon you've always wanted to be, take acting classes. Money doesn't buy you happiness but it can buy you everything you need to make yourself happy. It's your own fault if you don't know how to take initiative and use your resources.

To be in poverty is as good as being in jail. Even to be part of the middle-class, you're confined to the regular 9 to 5, the 5-figure-salary that won't grant you many vacations, maybe you can't have the baby boy you've always wanted 'cause you can't afford a kid. Probably won't have your dream wedding. Probably won't have the house you always thought you'd grow old in. Probably won't see the sights the world has to offer. I don't know about you, but even thinking of living with such obstacles is painful. That's why for me it will always be "Get rich or die trying." It's equivalent to the old phrase, "Give me liberty, or give me death." If I can't have the freedom of roaming around the world, having the job of my dreams, or doing the things I want to do all because I'm too fucking poor, I'd rather die. And that's why I keep my eyes on the fucking prize. My eyes will always be on the money. My greed is purely for living a quality life that knows no boundaries or restrictions. It proves to be a goal difficult to accomplish. And impossible without money.

To put an end to my point and lengthy post, if you want to know who is really free; it's not the 21-year-olds who suddenly have more freedom and independence in the eyes of the law or the immigrants who fled their oppressive native country and are now in the so-called Land of Opportunity. It's the millionaires and (especially) the billionaires. For the filthy rich, there is no Land of Opportunity. Their bank account alone grants them a whole entire world of opportunity. They can go anywhere, do anything, buy anything, be anyone, and get away with everything. Anything that their heart so happens to desire. They can even get away with murder. Money and freedom go hand in hand. No money, no freedom. Even the slaves back in the day knew it.

At first glance, I can understand the logic. If your best friend is truly a best friend, they should possess all the qualities you want in somebody who is going to be in your life. And since they have it all, why wouldn't it make sense to fall in love with their character? That's the biggest argument people make to me. But if I really had to follow that line of reasoning, if you fell in love with anybody who possessed the right qualities, then the first person you would fall in love with would probably be your dad. I mean, why not? He's caring, loves you unconditionally, is patient, kind, always there for you, etc. The point is, just because someone is all of these wonderful things does not mean you will fall in love with them. You would probably fall in love with half of the planet if that was the case.

But has anyone ever wondered why they haven't fallen in love with their mom or dad romantically despite how caring they are? Probably not, no. I'll tell you why. We never fall in love with our parents, siblings, or cousins because we simply do not allow ourselves to. Reason being because the world has already taught us how wrong and immoral incest is, so we control our feelings to be strictly family-love and not romantic. To use an example that is less odd, has anyone every wondered why they haven't fallen in love with their best friend that is of the same sex romantically (assuming that you are straight)? We probably haven't done that either, and for the same reason. We control our feelings to be strictly friend-love and not romantic. But why? If we are supposed to fall in love with our best friends, why not the ones of the same gender? I don't believe there is such a thing as being straight, only that we don't allow ourselves to be attracted to certain genders just like we don't allow ourselves to be attracted to family members. If we were open-minded and were not taught certain things since birth, we would be able to fall in love with anybody.

Basically, what does this all boil down to? You only fall in love with people that you allow yourself to fall in love with. You will not fall in love with your dad, your sister, or your best friend of the same sex if you consider yourself to be straight. When you met these people, you made up your mind that it just was not going to happen. Therefore, you will also not fall in love with your best friend if you decided from the beginning that you only wanted them in your life as a best friend. If you ever played around with the idea of getting together with them, then you have given yourself the green light. You will probably fall in love with them. Your best friend is a good person, so why not. It won't be long 'till you have fallen for their trap.

If you want advice for dating your best friend, I have done this once before for a desperate girl on Omegle and it seemed to work out. Dating your best friend and falling in love with them is like the ultimate modern-day fairy-tale. I mean, in reality it's the closest thing we get to one of those gross, cliche, happy endings. With that said, you will sacrifice a lot to get that happy ending. Many exceptions, excuses, and compromises will be made in this relationship because you want to avoid the double kill. If you break up, you are not only losing your significant other but also your best friend. I'll entertain the idea that maybe you will remain best friends, but I promise it won't be the same. When you go through a break up, you have your best friend to bitch to. If the person you broke up with is your best friend, cheers. Let's hope you have another one. What I'm saying is, don't even do it. And if you do, you're in for a ride.

On a completely different note, nowadays we often hear people using the best friend label for people that we are trying to get to know intimately. We need to cut that shit out. If you want to court somebody, come at them correctly. Don't be a coward. Ask them on a date. Don't call them your best friend and ask them to hang out with you in hopes of sparking something.

With that, I have only one change to make and that is to suck out all the poison in my life. Poison in the name of friendship. To be honest, being friends with the wrong people fucked up my life. It has altered an enormous part of my life and who I am. I'm not talking about deceitful friends who back-stab you and talk about you behind your back. I've seen real deceit at one of the highest levels. A little bit of shit talking means nothing. It's forgivable, it just means you are associated with someone who is immature. Having poison in your life, it digs into much deeper issues. Alcoholism, drug influence, violence, run-ins with the police, theft, murder. Lies on top of lies on top of lies. I don't want to deal with it anymore. I've been far too merciful, and I curse myself for it every day. I try to see what little amount of good there is in people, I've never accepted that some people do not contain enough to differentiate between what is right and wrong. Some people just frequently do wrong. My mercy has excused them on the basis that they are still a good person, regardless of action and that they swear they're trying to change for the better. It has been 6 years of forgiveness. And these people have nothing to show for their efforts at changing their ways. On the contrary, they only became more toxic with time. They're poison. And I'm just glad I wasn't so caught up in it that I myself became poison.

This is why I make it a priority to refrain from telling people that they are wrong outside the subject of math and science (since nobody has really argued the belief that they're immortal with me). If you tell somebody they're wrong when it's something they have a firm belief in, you might as well be trying to convince them that 2x2 equals 6. When people believe in something, in their world it becomes like law. And to convince this person otherwise and try to make them see things your way, you would of course be using your own logic and reasoning, which is why most arguments never really work out. Your logic will not seem logical to someone who has a different logic. Catch my drift?

This is probably the perfect example. You can read this and think I'm a fucking whack-job, which I can respect, or you can slowly start to agree with me the more I (try to) explain, which would indicate that you and I share a similar logic.

There's also the possibility that you never really solidified your beliefs. Which would make you easily swayed with enough persuasion. That would kind of make it a different story. Arguments can quickly be won over when the "opponent" never actually believed in something enough that in their world, it became as true as the laws of science and mathematics. So similar to science, when you have no clear conclusion you come up with and hear a thousand different theories and make your final decision as to what becomes your law. Getting someone to see things your way when they had no opinion in the first place isn't exactly what I'd call an achievement. It's like teaching a piece of bread, of course it's going to agree with you dude.

The people who frequently live outside their own world and allow themselves to see the logic in other peoples thinking are the real geniuses. It's a hard thing to do man. But if you live inside your own world for too long, you'll just get cocky and arrogant.