The cost of living

"If America is the richest country in the world, how can most of its citizens barely afford to live here?"--Swing Vote

The cost of living really hit me today, as I had to take my car in the for its 30,000 mile maintenance AND go to the dentist (not to mention going in for a random drug test for my job, which fortunately I didn't have to pay for).  The two expenses mentioned above added up to more than my paycheck. AWESOME. If I, who have a job that is far above minimum wage, can barely afford to pay for things, when I'm still on my parent's health insurance and am getting some assistance from them, how does the rest of the country life? Really, I can't figure it out.

This is an especially difficult dilemma for me, as I think everyone should have affordable health insurance (and by this I mean, NOT half of their income, or even a substantial portion), BUT I don't want government-sponsored health insurance (of all the things I love about England, the NIH isn't one of them) , I think Medicaid and Medicare are a lot of paperwork and useless hoops to jump through and not a lot of quality care, and I also don't want doctors to get paid any less than they already do by said organizations (they have to pay off med school/provide for their families somehow).  Interestingly, I think Mike Huckabee's idea of health insurance is a good place to start--a focus on preventative care rather than mopping up afterwards. In other words, treatment for people at risk for diabetes, rather than amputating limbs after the fact.  As you've probably noticed, he's no longer in the running for anything. 

In addition to my utter frustration at the American economy and how much things cost (and also at the US in general for not even attempting to come up with a reasonable solution for this), here are some

Reasons I hate going to the dentist:

• They try to talk to you while their hands/instruments are in your mouth (today I managed to stab myself in the gum while trying to answer a question about my undergrad major)
• They always manage to give you bad news (today:  My gums are receding and my teeth are wearing down from grinding/clenching them)
• I HATE that pointy curved thing they scrape plaque off with, not only because I absolutely detest the noise it makes on teeth, but also because I always manage to bleed copiously when they use it (today was no exception).
• It's expensive 
• The x-rays are, and have always been, farrrr to large for my mouth (who do they MAKE those things for? The Cookie Monster?)
• I always leave feeling bad about my teeth maintenance skills. 

In short, today was expensive, America is expensive, and I don't like the dentist.  Hurrah.