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Happy New Year 2025!
They say the American Dream comes in three stages. In the first five years or so, everything feels right and great. The second five? The negatives start to creep in. By the third stage, we slip into the “Whatever” mode.
Eight years into living in this country, I’m firmly in the second stage. I remember my first stage vividly. Coming from a repressive country, I was drunk on the ocean of freedom every day. Swearing at the government in public? WTF?! Though, honestly, I cared more about bread and butter than this freedom.
Stage two began around my sixth year here. My community is mostly middle-class, people who’ve been here for generations. They’re part of the 98% of the country — ordinary folks. And yet, behind their smiling faces, I started to notice deep-seated anxiety, sometimes even more profound than what I’d seen back home under dictatorship.
Groceries, prices, insurance, healthcare. Almost everyone has personal stories of being scammed — house projects, loans, investment fraud, subscriptions, you name it. When it happens, you’re left to fend for yourself. I learned this the hard way when a contractor scammed me. I reported it to the state licensing board, BBB, and other so-called authorities. They filed my complaint, but nothing else. “Get a lawyer,” they said. But the compensation…
