Why do you dislike the U.S?

Hypocrisy.

1. While the United States portrays itself as a land of opportunity for all:

a. It has a property taxed based educational system that perpetuates a drastic differential in educational opportunities between the rich and poor.

b. As a result of slavery, an ideology of extreme racism toward African Americans still persists among a significant portion of the population.

c. Higher education is beyond the reach of the lower classes, thus perpetuating both the class and racial disparity.

d.African Americans are dramatically overrepresented in the prison system due to the lack of opportunities resulting from (a) and (c) and a general bias against African Americans resulting from (b).

2. While the United States claims to promote democracy and freedom:

a. The nation itself was created from land stolen from other people against whom the US government committed genocide and whom the government refuses to compensate for these genocidal acts.

b. The nation's wealth is in great part due to the use of slaves, whom the government refuses to compensate for their enslavement and their continued underprivileged status.

c. The US has overthrown numerous democratically elected governments or contributed to their overthrow, and assisted dictators who oppress and kill their citizenry: Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, for example.

d. The US is currently engaged in a series of wars against Middle Eastern regimes under the guise of "democratization" with the intention of gaining control of the vast petroleum resources there to cripple its primary competitors, Russia and China.

I dislike many other countries even more than the United States, for different reasons.

Shamil,

Yes, in some very real respects there is a double standard in the US.  The poor/rich divide is growing.  Student assistance programs are underfunded.  I myself owe nearly $30,000 in student loans and I left college my senior year because I was denied more loans and could not pay the $12,000 in tuition owed after financial aid. 

However, in that same vein, higher education is becoming MORE accessible in other ways.  Non traditional schools are allowing for people like my husband who did not have the opportunity of college after high school to get an education, cheaply and while he is still working.  My sister is obtaining a business degree online and more employers are offering tuition reimbursement if your degree is of use to the company.

Racism is a problem in the United States, but its also a problem elsewhere.  We were not the only nation to use slaves and England nearly sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War.  The problem with compensation of the ex slaves is you have to research and accurately account for the decendents of millions of slaves.  It took the black decendents of Thomas Jefferson 200 years to establish paternity.  I am an amature geneologist and it would be a bureaucratic nightmare.  Not every African American in this country would be due money, while getting it to those who would deserve it would be an insurmountable task, you would be paying people who themselves were not enslaved.  A single slave would have 1000s of decendents by now spread all over the country.  Perhaps a better solution would be to set up more foundations like the United Negro College Fund. 

Of course, then I would ask where is the compensation coming from.  My taxes?  Most of my family arrived AFTER the Civil War, and those that were hear since 1662 never owned slaves.  I have researched that branch thoroughly.  Why should I have to pay for the sins of another?

What really upsets me about our government is their continued blind eye to the plight of the native americans.  The Skull Valley nuclear waste dump will be on a reservation and the paltry sum given to the tribe will not cover their medical expenses when the stuff will be dumped there.  But there have been progresses made.  Kenski mentioned a few, there is also a law, forbidding white americans or any non native for that matter to adopt a native american child.  A child who belongs to a recognized tribe cannot be adopted outside the tribe unless they hold council and decide.  I still feel there should be more social programs to help.  The Casino dollars are not trickling down to the average tribe member and they are still in horrible circumstances.

The problem with the US is we are still a land of opportunity, or we wouldn't have so many immigrants coming in legally and illegally every year.  But, the dreams of those that got off the boat with my family were of a different era and now the US is at a crossroads.  Change is coming, for better or worse?  We can only do our best to make it the former and not the latter.

This is a quote from that site:

We express our intent to call upon the families of the white American aristocracy that directly benefited from slavery, to voluntarily pay their fair share of the reparations debt with wealth gained from slavery, the slave trade, and slavery related enterprises.

Considering the use does not have a "white american aristocracy" as this intends, the money would come out of my check.  And Shamil, I can barely make ends meet now. 

Bill Gates....Microsoft was not around during the Civil War.

Marriott and Hilton.....made their fortunes after the Civil War.

Rockafeller, Hearst and Astor....many of these fortunes are already gone...the companies dissolved and flung to the four winds.

Who is going to pay?  Again, people who had nothing to do with the Slavery. 

May I ask you a question?  If your great, great, great, great, great....yes its been that long....grandfather stole a goat from another man in 1860-65, would you be responsible to go to the man's decendant and give him a goat?  Which of his decendants gets the goat?  Or do you give them all goats? 

I know that's over simplifying the issue.  But, many of the companies that benefitted from slavery are gone....many of the plantation owners were financially ruined after the war anyway.  What do you pay a person for what their ancestors complete humiliation and forced labor?  The average wage in those days was a few dollars a year.  Even by todays standards, how would you calculate it? 

Reparations are not the answer to the pain and suffering the slaves endured.  And I for one refuse to pay for something neither I nor my family did.... 

I read over the website.....they really don't have a plan for payment and their statements are vague as to WHO should pay......

I have many AA friends and my husband and I might be adopting an AA child.  I am not a racist, I just don't feel that more people should have hardships put on them because of something that happened 150 years ago. 

Reparations would hurt the poor, not the rich.  It would be taken from our taxes which pay for our social programs....or it would be passed to us in the form of higher consumer goods from the few companies that still exist.

In the end, reparations are not a cure.