We had some Liberians over for dinner tonight. I made mounds and mounds of rice, thinking of all the things you can make with leftover rice. Imagine my surprise when the four of us ate it all. Every last grain of it. It was incredible because I made three times the amount that I usually do.

But, come to find out, the cost of a bag of rice (let's hope it is at least 50 or 100 pounds but I don't know how big it is) is the equivalent of two months salary for the average Liberian (about $60 US) according to our guests. Which is terrible enough if they got paid, but they routinely don't get paid when and what they should. The widespread inflation is largely due to corrupt government officials living high on the hog on stolen money, squandering millions (even billions) while the people starve. The more they told us about the last 30 years or so of political and societal upheaval in Liberia the more horrified I became.

And I was thinking as they left that there is very little room for us to complain in the US. Yes, things are bad here--worse than they have been in a long time. A 3# bag of rice at Aldi has gone from $0.79 a bag to $1.39 a bag in a last few months, which is annoying, certainly, but not unmanageable. There is evidence that our leaders in the political and business realms have made poor decisions that have cost us money, our jobs maybe, and some peace of mind. But they didn't systematically go through and chop off our hands. There is too much violence and murder in this country (our time in North Philly made all the statistics heartbreakingly real to us), but it is gang violence, not government militias. It is the result of broken homes and rampant sin, not violent takeovers.

And it is not just the Liberians we know that are grateful to be here working at Value Village making minimum wage and living in a tiny, rundown apartment. I've had this same conversation with my friend from Panama and with the illegal immigrant women I strike up conversations with at the park (half to practice my Spanish and half to get a better understanding of illegal immigration issues. The more harrowing how-I-got-into-this-country stories I hear, the more complicated and two-sided an issue it becomes for me). They are so desperate to be here that they are willing to walk for three days straight, eat nothing, and spend their life savings to get here.

They all say the same thing: "The quality of life is just better here."

So, Chicken Little (i.e. the American public and salacious media), the sky is not falling. Our bad is not the worst. Our poverty not that poor and our problems not that dire. Scary, but certainly not the scariest.