As many complaints about the government I have had in recent years, all in all they are actually amazing.
(namely the removal of the gold standard and how much fricken money the fed is printing) Bye-bye USD!
But they have done many things right. I would even go as far as to say most things right!
My first thought is about how much national forest, state forest, and BLM land there is out there. Keeping these maintained and open to the public is no easy task. Anyone could make a ton of money from developing this land and the government would benefit by taxing those businesses.
But they still choose to maintain the land and keep it public.
I spend an outrageous amount of time sleeping in government land. As I am writing this I am in a Sno-Park right by mount Bachelor.
All my life I have loved being in the outdoors and our government has made that substantially easier for me.
Better yet, I have a few friends who have tremendous careers working in fire or other government jobs.
I often picture myself as one of the first people to discover California. What an adrenaline rush! What I do most frequently is envision coming over the mountain range and looking at Tahoe for the first time. But then I remember how brutal the donner party was and how nasty eating another human would be!
Yuck!
I mean imagine crossing the entire US on a wagon, just to have to abandon it so you can climb up a mountain and hope there is something good on the other side! Talk about risking it.
No matter, our ancestors put in the work so we don’t have to. Thanks!
Sometimes I just have to stop for a minute and think about how lucky I am to have been born in the US. I imagine what it is like to live in a third world country and not have access to clean water.
What it all boils down to is that we are super lucky to live in the USA and it makes me grateful.