I had a chance to travel abroad a while back and one of the biggest shocks to me was not being able to buy stuff with money. Like it didn't matter how much mone

I had a chance to travel abroad a while back and one of the biggest shocks to me was not being able to buy stuff with money. Like it didn't matter how much money I had, the stuff was just not in any stores. Ok, so what can I buy? No one knows, there is no walmart or bestbuy you just have to go to random stores and even then if they do have something it's much more expensive than in the US(in dollars). Another shocker was how much in demand my dollars were. Everyone from street scammers to government officials massively tried to mess with me in different ways to get dollars out of me. Not because of exchange rates and the wealth it represents because if you want to buy stuff from other countries (not even the west) you need dollars mostly with euro and rmb also sometimes acceptable. I have since gotten so grateful about so many things here. But it seems no amount of wealth can cure the divisions and disdain groups of americans have for each other. It really scares how little americans realize just how much they have to lose. I work in a technical field and get paid good but even when I was making $9/hr I remember thinking I had all my bills and rent paid, I was eating and drinking what I want (including my choice of beer and pizza! Lol), had my own car (shitty car but it got the job done) and I had free time to watch any movie/entertainment I wanted at the time and learn stuff like coding and infosec to do what I liked. And right now with no college degree I am literally doing what I love, I spend weekends on work related side projects even and get paid really good. The only things I will not feel good about doing in the US is healthcare. If I get any serious sickness I will probablu become a medical tourist to mexico or thailand or something. And I had a glimpse into the prison and criminal punishment side of things a while back and it is truly terrifying. Like it was one of the main reasons I do all I can now to avoid driving a car, so I won't have to interact with the police. One thing I have learned in life is while you should always work to improve your situation you have to always take bad stuff with the good. There is no paradise on this earth.