A few weeks ago, the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Twittersphere was ablaze with enraged Americans who vowed to escape the tyrannical regime that’d force “socialized” medicine on a free people.
So where were the angry masses planning to flee?
Canada. Hahahaha . . . ha . . . HA!
Not that there’s anything wrong with Canada. It’s just that if the sole purpose of your northern trek is to avoid universal health care, you should probably rethink your decision.
At the time, I shrugged off the widespread threats to abandon America for Canada as lunacy. Please. We’ve got too much of a good thing going for us down here–or so I heard.
But a new study revealed that–for the first time ever–Canadians are richer than Americans. *Gasp!* Now that’s not funny.
After getting smacked with the soul crushing news that my country might lose its slot as the wealthiest, most awesomest nation on the planet, I paused. For a brief second, I thought that maybe, perhaps some day, I wouldn’t be proud to call the U.S.A home.
Am I thinking of moving to Canada? Never! It’s too daggum cold up there.
As a matter of fact, I’m not going anywhere.
Personally, I’m not worried about physician shortages or high unemployment or sluggish economic growth. I mean, what’s the point?
When was the last time worry fixed a problem?
Recently, a friend and I discussed the dismal state of our economy.
Although my comrade’s income grew throughout the recession (and continues to grow), he seemed troubled by the number of jobless Americans.
I told him that I don’t believe the economy is as horrific as the media would have us believe. News publications know that hyperbolic headlines sell.
If you can evoke emotions of fear, rage, disgust, etc. from your audience, you can take their eyeballs and glue them to the television, computer screen, or anything you use to push that garbage you call news.
Maybe my reality is warped.
Last week, one of my best friends received an offer for a job that’d pay 19% more than her current position.
Another friend has worked not one, but two well paying, professional gigs for over five years.
At the beginning of 2012, my 60-year old mother closed her business and got a job.
And before I voluntarily quit my job at the end of 2011, for five years, my income grew at over 8% a year.
Before you attack me, lemme just say that I am fully aware my close circle of friends don’t represent the entire nation.
Hooowever, you can’t say there aren’t ANY jobs when there are people who work TWO jobs. Or that companies don’t pay a living wage when there are people who earn well above a living wage.
Although I admit a certain level of my success can be attributed to good ol’ fashioned luck, I still have to work and plan and plan and work. While you’re pining over the way things should’ve been, you can put together a detailed strategy to accomplish your goals.
But instead of updating your skills and grabbing the opportunities that are available, you’re hyponitzed by the Negative Nellies who profit from your angst.
Every month, we nervously wait for the jobs report so that we can weep over the number of jobs added by private sector employers. But consider this: since February 2011, 3 million American jobs have gone unfilled each month.
Even if more jobs were created, assuming they’re anything like the positions we have available, we won’t be able to fill those either. So, then what?
You should be optimistic about the future. Unlike what’s already happened, you can exercise at least some control over what’s going to happen.
As a self proclaimed info-nympho, I believe people should stay up-to-date with what’s happening around them. Just not so much they don’t realize what’s happening within them.
When I was a child, one of my favorite sayings was “Knowledge is power.” I still believe that. Unfortunately, sometimes misinformation masquerades as knowledge. It’s spun into such negativity you feel paralyzed and demoralized when you consume it.
If the “knowledge” you receive only conjures up feelings of worry and anxiety, ignore it. Going forward, guard your mind from poison that steals your hope.
Do the negative news reports worry you?
Shawanda Greene is a free thinking, frugal gal whose only vices are boxed wine, lip balm and money grubbing. You can find more of Shawanda's musings at 
http://goo.gl/OIVca
A friend and I laughed at that SO HARD (the Americans planning to flee to Canada post-healthcare announcement). You could drown in the irony.
I actually have a post scheduled about this. I’ve been lucky in employment and so have most of the people around me, but some of my friends are graduating this year and finding it tough.
It’s never that cold in Vancouver lol. Though we get a lot of rain and not a lot of sun. And you’ll never be able to afford a house. Other than that it ain’t that bad. Though even though I’m a proud Canadian I would love to live in California or Portland, OR.
You’re right about worry being a useless time suck, not only when it comes to your finances, but that goes for life in general. Might as well focus on the positive and try to save & cut back on as much as you can. There are a few inspirational quotes I love about giving up control over the things you have no control over, but, you get the picture! What you can control is how you deal with them, by working hard & being open to new opportunities.
I agree the media blows everything out of proportion and only focuses on a certain demographic. While I myself AM struggling with jobs/money, just about every single one of my friends is doing rather well (which is comforting and hard at the same time).
I’m also curious where you got this article that suggests “for the first time ever” Canadians are richer than Americans — the average Canadian citizen has been richer than the average American for years.
I’ll address your other inflammatory comments later.
But for your reading pleasure, here ya go . . .http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/17/the-average-canadian-is-now-richer-than-the-average-american/
“Over the past five years, the average net worth of Canadian households has exceeded that of American households.”
There, that’s more what I was thinking (when you wrote “first time” it felt like “first year” but in reality it’s been 5 years) so we’re both right, it just depends how you read the article.
No need to address my other comments, the statistics are readily available.
No, you both were not right. You were wrong. The article is saying that for the past five years the average net worth of the Canadian was higher than the average net worth of the American. That said, it still took you all five years to catch up and overpass us. Your averages went up for Canadians more and more every year, but our averages were so high to begin with that it took you a while to get to where we are. This was in fact the first year that Canadians had a higher net worth than Americans. That’s not about how you read the article, but about your ability to interpret facts.
I’m still working on getting worrying out of my “default” function when things go awry, or even seem like they’re getting close to going awry, and you’re right – major time suck when my brain is occupied with freaking out instead of writing new blog posts or coming up with ideas for new clients.
Personally, I think the biggest problem the USA has is government spending. Sooner or later, those of us who read PF blogs have come around to the realization that we cannot spend more than we earn. I believe that there is another crash coming. It will mean high unemployment, hyperinflation and a further drop in housing values for the US. It is going to get uglier. Right now, I am spending time researching what my family needs to be doing to ride the next crash out rather than worrying about it and doing nothing. As you so rightly state, worrying doesn’t solve anything. I need to figure out whether it makes sense to sell my house now, before values drop again, and where to place my investments. I can’t stuff the mattress with them.
Worry does suck the life and joy out of you.
Also, I just wanted to point something out in regards to your comment about Canada being too cold – I live in Ontario about two hours from Syracuse and the temperature here is very similar to that of NYC. We do get cold winters, but our summers are hot!
You know that the USA is by far the worst first-world country in the world, right? Not only do most Americans have less money than the average citizen of the developed world, they have fewer rights, limited access to higher education, and dismal healthcare. America is awesome if you’re rich, but if you’re middle class? (You know, like yourself) It’s a shithole. I know they indoctrinate you with patriotism so you don’t realize how bad it actually is but seriously, you need to get out of the USA and look around: it sucks to be American.
Yikes Bridget, why so antagonistic? She wasn’t dissing Canada… she was sarcastically laughing about people fleeing to Canada (a place with universal healthcare) to get away from America (because they were scared of universal healthcare). Get it?
It is a RARE moment when I find myself in defense of the USA, but you really shouldn’t have taken this post so personally. She wasn’t dissing Canada or you, but you came out on the attack mode (like, it sucks to be you…. middle class American with no rights, no money, and no healthcare).
Hopefully you can see how your comments were rude.
Maybe all your friends have jobs, but that’s not the case everywhere. I graduated with honors from higher education in May 2011 and have yet to secure a full time job. Many of my peers are in the same position. Hopping from temps jobs that don’t pay well and have no benefits is not how I envisioned starting off my adult life. I have resorted to working part time at a clothing store in a mall in order to at least have some regular income; it doesn’t even cover basic necessities like monthly rent and utilities. For all the people currently employed who tells me how great they have it and how I’m not trying hard enough, you seriously have no clue how difficult it is to start out in this economy. Yes, many companies post jobs but many of those positions want years of experience. Coming directly out of school I have very little experience and lots of debt. I’ve lowered my standards so much that the jobs I apply for are basically any job that’s full time in my field or about 4 others closely related, regardless of whether I’m interested in it. I will be grateful to be making any full time income. I find your post to be incredibly insulting and ridiculous in the fact that you believe everyone is being handed raises and the rest of us are just oblivious to all these seemingly unfilled
You are right. Worry doesn’t solve anything. It took me a long time to learn to “let it go”. But I realized at some point that most of the crap that passes for news doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. So I focus on the grand scheme. For me, that’s eternity, where God is in charge. It doesn’t mean I’m checked out of what’s happening around me. But I focus on what I, one person, can contribute to the needs around me, instead of worrying about 1st world problems and “needs” the media and government try to create in me.
Great post-and I agree. I refuse to get too worked up over the state of affairs in our country because theres really nothing I (personally) can do about it. Maybe it’s my generations blase attitude towards things, but I’ve got bigger things to worry about. Like contributing to my Roth IRA.