Cost of Living:

The cost of living in the USA is unusually high.  This forces people into humiliating and denigrating work they otherwise would not do.  Whether it's paper pushing for the government, advertising for businesses, being a lawyer, price-gouging medicine, joining a military that no longer serves any sensible role, etc, etc, everyone is forced to compromise their morals and sense of dignity by taking on jobs they really don't want to do.

Jobs used to be obviously good things.  You were fishing, or hunting, or sewing clothes.  Making horseshoes or barrels.  Stuff people needed to live.  Now most jobs can't even pinpoint who exactly they're helping or how they are actually helping them.  This should not be the pinnacle of a person's life and the End of all their time and energy -- a job they themselves can't even describe what good they've done by doing it.

Is it possible that this double whammy -- the high cost of living and the humiliating jobs that become our reason for being to offset said expenses -- are behind the 60,000 overdose death new record in 2016?  Has our economy pushed many people over their limits?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/31/americans-paying-more-in-taxes-than-for-food-clothing.html

In an assessment of “Consumer Expenditures” for 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the average bill for federal, state and local taxes was $10,489. 

By comparison, Americans spent $9,006 on food and clothes, with most of that going toward food.

the average tax bill rose 41 percent overall since 2013. 

According to BLS, the largest expense for Americans in 2016 was on “housing,” costing an average consumer unit $18,886 during the year.

And don't forget the cost of health care, almost 100% due to government interference:  https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/23/heres-how-much-the-average-american-spends-on-health-care.html

Indeed, average annual costs per person hit $10,345 in 2016. In 1960, the average cost per person was only $146 — and, adjusting for inflation, that means costs are nine times higher now than they were then.

So health care, which hasn't noticeably improved since 1960 in terms of actual goods and services, is now nine times as expensive as it used to be, and still skyrocketing.  This would just be a side issue, since there's no reason healthy people should be buying health care anyway, except that the government now requires we pay for this skyrocketing in price, nine times as expensive as it should be product, whether we benefit from it or not.

Housing is mainly expensive because people have to live near where the jobs are, so they can pay all these other insane expenses.  It's also an unavoidable cost if they have kids and need to put them in a school where they won't be assaulted/bullied/harassed by the underclass.  Public education is a torture chamber if parents do not pay top dollar for the 'right kind of neighborhood.'

No one is happily forking over $19k a year on housing just because they like living in mansions.  This is not a luxury, it's a necessity.  This is just the cost of living in America.

So here we are.  Due to the bad policies of the government, life is more expensive in America than virtually any other country even makes in per capita GDP.  $48,726 a year per person spent solely on necessities.  Just basic cost of living.  This doesn't even include transportation -- getting to and from work.  It doesn't include phones, internet, and other necessities to do business and chores in America while at home.  Just how high do the expenses go?  And all of these are basic necessities.  You can't save money by cutting out these budget items without dropping out of the employment system entirely.

Is it any wonder that the average American is deep in debt and has no savings?  The per capita GDP in America is $57,300.  Is this even enough to pay the bills anymore?  What about all the college debt they've racked up?

Things haven't always been this bad.  The insane cost of health care is 9 times what it used to be.  Taxes are up 41% in just the last three years.  The cost of college is way higher than it used to be.  Real estate costs in the biggest job hotspots are way up.

72% in the last five years.  Good luck with that -- wages haven't risen since the 70's.

What happens when it's impossible to make ends meet?  When expenses for a regular middle class life exceed middle class incomes?  Does anyone in Washington D.C. have a plan?

Because we are past the tipping point.  All of these enormous rises in expenses for basic goods -- housing, health care, college, taxes, stuff no one can avoid or be frugal about because they have no choice but to pay for it -- they're rising higher, faster, than our incomes, and they're past the point where we can afford Christmas presents for the kids anymore.  Middle class families.  Well to do, well educated, high socioeconomic status, prestigious jobs, full time employed families.  It just doesn't matter anymore.  The flood waters just keep rising as these expenses just go up and up and up.

I feel so sorry for people trying to make a living out there.  They are working at really terrible jobs, really demeaning jobs, and no matter how hard they work they just fall deeper into debt instead.  The peasants of old England had it better.  The Roman latifundia system was fairer.

It doesn't have to be this way.  People in France, Japan, etc, still have access to all the basic goods like food, water, electricity, internet -- and they don't pay anything like we do.  They couldn't -- their GDP is half of ours.  But they can still afford everything they need and they work less than we do too while they're at it.  There's something wrong with this picture.  Why is everything so expensive?  What are the other countries doing to control costs, and why can't we do the same?