The diarist understates the insecurity of the middle class.  For example, education quality varies dramatically from town to town - and is reflected in the ridiculous housing prices.  If a family loses income and has to move down the scale, i.e. to a less affluent town, its schoolage children suffer immediately.  This is a form of insecurity unknown in Europe.

The lack of a federal (national) commitment to education and health is mirrored by the lack of any active commitment to democracy.  Our county-based electoral "system" is enormously expensive and corrupt.  It's purpose is to provide patronage jobs and plenty of cover for skullduggery by local elites.  

American elites are busy turning the USA into Argentina - an economy that went from wealthy to poor in two decades.  Or perhaps I should compare our elites to the DDR, whose leadership believed its own fake statistics, as well as the rest of its propaganda.