Welcome to America! Care for some grubs?

PERHAPS WE SHOULD prepare ourselves for America as a sort of top-tier Third World nation. Our health care system is already pretty much of a mess, and the government has neither the resources nor the will to do much about it. Our public schools are still in sad shape, and our state is about to adopt an "austerity budget," which will mean more school programs will have to be cut. Already our hunger and infant mortality rates compare unfavorably with those of much of Western Europe. The government is suspicious of any social welfare program that does not come clothed in raiments of Christianity. And it's darned hard to have faith-based electricity.

jon carroll, from earlier in the week.