@jbz
I was recently in the US.

It was so deeply depressing. Wait staff desperate for tips. Extended family on the brink of financial disaster with no access to health care. Potholed roads. Crumbling infrastructure. Ads blasting out of every gas pump. Ultra processed food everywhere. And prices, oh lord so high..

I wept when i finally got back "home" overseas. Partly in joy at being somewhere sane. Partly in sorrow for what has become of my place of birth. Partly in fear for who I left behind.