america is really incredible. any time someone asks "why is this facet of our society so unbelievably terrible" the answer is almost always "10 rich men pulled every available string to make society worse for hundreds of millions of people so they could make billions of dollars"
why do i need a car to do anything? auto industry
why is housing so expensive/unattainable? speculative housing market
why is it so hard to beat the fossil fuel industry? the banks we have to put our money in lend it to fossil fuel barons by the tens of billions
why are we still poisoning kids with gas stoves? natural gas industry
the list is truly endless