(gentle music)
- [Briggs] What is going on everyone?
Welcome back to "World According to Briggs",
and a video created by you.
Over the last month,
I've been running surveys on Google Surveys,
and have been asking people,
what they thought the biggest problems
we face in this country,
and what they feel is destroying the American way of life.
I listed 40 popular issues,
the United States is dealing with these days,
like healthcare, inflation,
politics, media, social media,
and a bunch of other things.
I took the findings,
and brought them to the community tab
of "World According to Briggs",
and asked you guys to rank them.
There was some good discussions going on on those polls.
People were talking, surprisingly,
people for the most part were respectful,
and I say, surprisingly,
because we get a lot of those political zealots
on this channel.
You see 'em in the comment section,
turning every video and every conversation,
into some opportunity to slam the other political party.
I could be making a video about cities with the worst pizza
and you would get them leaving comments
about how the pizza sucks
because the liberals or the conservatives,
are trying to kill the cheese and dough industry.
I have a theory on why it wasn't that toxic
for this question.
I think most of us, no matter where you stand politically,
you kinda want the best for the country.
And so this was an opportunity to tell us
what you thought was wrong with it.
Okay, so is this the most scientific
or statistically correct video?
No, it's based on opinion polls
of people that watch my videos,
we had about 60,000 responses on the community tab,
and the surveys I did on Google Surveys,
got about 4,000 responses.
This video, in my opinion, is very interesting.
Let's take a look at what you think is wrong with America.
(wind blowing)
Number 10, wealth and greed.
Now there's nothing wrong with being wealthy,
I mean, that's part of the American dream.
There's an opportunity
for everyone to reach the top financially,
and it happens all the time.
Judging by the comment section,
I think a lot of people feel that,
when people have too much wealth,
they hold too much influence
over politicians and it creates economic problems.
When you have the top 5% of the economy,
they spend five to 10% of their income.
Then you look at the middle class on down,
they spend 90 to 110% of their income, just to get by.
Of course, in some cases, going into debt,
that affects the economy in negative ways,
and that's what a lot of people feel
our biggest problem is,
and why we have so many people going in debt,
into poverty and on the streets.
(wind blowing)
Number nine, corporate influence.
This has been going on since forever.
You got all these lobbyists in Washington, DC,
and even at the state level where they basically,
represent a corporation that wants some things done.
And the way they get those things done is,
they basically approach politicians,
give them money for their campaign,
buy them gifts if they want,
they grease the wheels
to make things happen for the corporation,
throwing a lot of money at politicians.
The people that felt this was our biggest problem
were probably the most vocal portion of our survey.
They left a lot of comments,
and most of those comments
led back to something known as Citizens United.
Citizens United is a nonprofit conservative group
that challenged campaign finance rules.
Back in the old days there were serious limits
on what you could donate to a politician.
Well, they challenged this
and it went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Well, the Supreme Court agreed with them.
There's a lot that goes into this
but I'm gonna broad brush it really quick.
Basically, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that,
"limiting independent political spending,
from corporations and other groups,
violates the first amendment right to free speech."
Meaning your money is free speech.
So this kind of opened up the floodgate
for political donations and money,
and if you're given a politician a whole bunch of money,
you're gonna want some favors,
and that's what a lot of people think
is one of our biggest problems.
(wind blowing)
Number eight, big pharma.
Big pharma is the term they give
for these giant pharmaceutical companies
that make everything from Viagra,
to the COVID vaccine, to everything else.
In most countries, they have serious limits
on what these companies can charge people
for the different drugs.
The United States, it's a little murky,
and they kinda get to do what they want.
Again, I'm broad brushing it,
there's a lot that goes into this one,
but the crux of it is the United States,
by far has the highest drug prices.
You always see things how in Canada,
you can get like whatever drug,
for like $12 a pill,
in the United States, it's $3000,
there's always something like that,
and those aren't just one on offs,
this happens with most drugs here in the United States.
What's really screwed up about it,
is a lot of the research they do to develop these drugs,
the United States taxpayer pays for that,
and then they turn around and charge us the highest price
for the drugs that we pay them to research,
again, a big wide broad brush,
and this could be argued all day,
but that's what's making people angry,
life saving drugs, insulin, asthma medication,
all that stuff is far too expensive
here in the United States.
And a lot of people think
that's what's tearing this country apart.
(wind blowing)
Number seven, the pandemic.
So this one's all over the board.
The pandemic has obviously been a problem
for everyone in the United States,
whether you've been affected by a death,
whether gotten COVID yourself,
or you're one of the people
that think it's a big giant conspiracy,
wherever you stand on it,
fine, that's your own opinion, you do you.
What isn't disputable,
is the way it's affected the economy and our lives.
And a lot of people think that we're going down a path
because of it, whether it was planned or not,
whether you're believing the conspiracies,
or you just think, you know, we're in a bad time,
a lot of people think it's basically
tearing up the fabric of the United States,
and how we live our life,
and it could have long lasting effects
on our economy and our lifestyle.
(wind blowing)
Number six, inflation.
Inflation is kind of brought on
by the recovery of the pandemic.
We're in the middle of the pandemic, yes,
but we've learned to deal with it.
We've learned to live with it to a degree,
and things are getting better.
Things are also getting more expensive
because people are spending money again.
We have supply chain problems, all that stuff.
Most of it could be traced back to the pandemic
but others feel it's just different policies.
Whatever the reason,
this is a big problem for a lot of Americans,
and they think that this is kind of destroying this country.
(wind blowing)
Number five, healthcare costs.
You got big pharma,
which supplies all of the drugs we need.
Well, you also have the standard,
go to the hospital, see your doctor problems.
It's like a double whammy.
You get a high doctor bill
because you broke your foot,
had go to the emergency room,
and then you get hosed again when you buy the pills.
But right now on this one,
we're just focusing on the healthcare costs,
and it's up there.
Even though you get Medicare, Medicaid,
there's still a good size chunk of money
that comes outta your retirement,
if you have to go to the doctor,
and as we get older,
we all have to go to the doctor.
The United States spends the most,
per capita on healthcare.
Number two is Switzerland, and they spend about 7,000.
Then there's about eight other countries,
after Switzerland that spend between six and 7,000.
The United States per capita,
spends over $10,000 a year on healthcare costs,
and this for a lot of people is a serious problem,
and they think it's destroying the United States.
Most of those people are all older people.
When you're younger, you don't care.
The doctor's just something you might have to go to
if you break something,
or if you're unlucky enough to have some kind of disease.
When you get older, a lot of your money
goes to your healthcare and it sucks.
(wind blowing)
Number four, social media.
Yes, the big villain, social media.
This has been all over the news in recent years,
pretty much since the 2016 Presidential Election.
Different countries and organizations,
were basically weaponizing social media with misinformation.
That's just a fact,
I'm not saying which party it was against,
'cuz they all did it.
As we all came aware of, what's known as fake news,
we realized that social media could be a problem.
Fake news was basically something
that was a news story that was fake,
in order for you to believe something that was false.
Now, anything someone disagrees with,
they just label it fake news,
that kind of gives them the out.
Oh, that's not true 'cuz it's fake news.
No it's just a stat you didn't like.
Fake news is an actual fake thing,
posted on social media,
to sway your opinion and possibly your vote,
through fake information.
Social media companies like Facebook, Twitter,
or everyone is now working to make these things better.
I understand the dilemma they're in though,
because at what point do you deem something fake news,
or something that is misinformation,
and it's an opinion of someone else?
They're kind of put in a position
where they have to limit freedom of speech,
and I, in a way,
kinda feel sorry for the social media companies,
they're put in a bad situation,
but you can't deny it's affected the way we live our lives,
both good, but in a lot of cases bad,
especially when it comes to election season.
(wind blowing)
Number three, politicians.
Now we've kind of talked about politics on this already,
corporate influence over politicians,
the wealthy controlling politicians,
but people just have a real problem
with politicians in general.
Since the first human being was elected to office,
way back in the Greek days, the Roman days, whatever,
politicians have been lying to the public,
that's just what they do.
Most of the time it comes in the form
of telling you they're going to do something,
when they really have no intention of doing it,
they just know that's what you need to hear.
This was a lot easier for politicians to do
back in the old days,
when they didn't have 24 hour news channels,
and the internet.
Now people call 'em on it a lot more
so they've gotten more crafty over time.
And this of course in a lot of cases,
has made even more people, mistrust politicians.
And that's what a lot of people think that,
how the politicians are now,
is what's destroying the country.
This kind of overlaps on number one,
that we'll get to in a minute,
but 67% of Americans think politicians
are doing more bad for the country than good.
(wind blowing)
Number two, the media.
Now we're talking about the regular media.
You know, you got Fox News, CNN, MSNBC,
Huffington Post, New York Times,
whoever the actual media,
there was a time in the 1950s, sixties,
and maybe even the 1970s,
where the American public trusted the media,
since the 1980s and nineties, that trust has been eroded,
and it's continued to erode to this day.
And honestly, it's gonna continue,
the media that we used to know and love,
back at our grandparents day, it's long gone.
When it comes to which media outlet sucks the most,
that really just depends on
where you get your information from,
and what political party you associate yourself with.
Back in the golden age of news media, there was no opinion,
they just stated the facts,
as we got more media outlets,
they had to get your attention
because you had a lot of other options,
so things got a little more over dramatic,
things were said certain ways to keep your attention,
and at some point they found out opinion news media,
kept people's attention.
That's another subject you have different camps on,
but that's kind of how most people feel,
that opinion news media is killing this country,
but millions and millions of Americans
watch it every single day.
All right, before we get to number one,
don't forget we have another channel,
called "On This Day", there's a link down below.
(wind blowing)
And number one, political divide.
Back to politics we go.
And this one is just focusing on us,
and the political divide Americans have.
There used to be a day
where you could actually have a conversation
about their views on politics and policies,
and everything like that.
Nowadays it's filled with hatred.
If you vote differently than I do,
I hate you is kind of the theme
for a lot of Americans these days.
Earlier we talked about the zealots, the political zealots,
we have that come into the comment section,
every single video, with nothing but political nonsense.
It's good to be engaged in the political process.
That's just like apple pie,
and baseball here in the United States,
it's part of our thing,
but now it's turned into a hatred and aggressive stance,
towards anyone that dares vote differently than you.
And this just isn't one party, this is all parties,
both sides of the major parties and independents.
Now I've seen stats where
only 20% of the American population,
really pays attention to political crap,
until an election year.
But that 20%, that just lives and breathes politics,
they've consumed their life with it,
that's what we all see, like I said,
on Twitter and the comment section of videos,
on Facebook posts and yeah,
according to the polls and the surveys I did,
this is the number one thing,
most Americans think is wrong with this country right now.
(gentle music)
All right, everyone.
That was a little bit of a different video.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information out of it.
Let me know what you thought in the comment section below.
We're not gonna do a bunch of videos like this,
it's just a one off type thing.
All right, everyone have a great day.
Be nice to each other.