In response to my “Grumpy Ed” post (earlier this month), I received a response from a reader who gently took me to task for my half-empty view of life generally and of the United States in particular. I replied to him that I would love to have a pair of his rose-colored glasses.
The reader then provided something even better: a beautifully-composed and impressively-detailed review of the greatness of America. He refers to America’s story as “spectacular.” He begins his essay by acknowledging that we aren’t talking about Utopia, but then goes on to defend, most eloquently, a glass-half full (maybe even more than half-full) account of the country’s history.
The writer is Tom James. I’m pleased to provide his essay, unedited except for a few typos I took the liberty to correct. It follows a short bio which he provided at my request.
As always, comments are most welcome, either posted to the blog or sent privately via e-mail. I’ll be happy to forward any personal comments to Tom. (For those unable to access the blog, I’ll be happy to provide a hyperlink. Just send me an e-mail requesting it.)
Please enjoy this holiday gift from Tom James. Rest assured that my next post will be decidedly less cheery.
My hometown is New Haven Connecticut, but I was mostly raised in New Rochelle New York. My father was a public school teacher, and my mother worked all my life. We were strictly middle middle class, or even lower middle class. I have an older sister and a younger brother. I am a product of public education, community college, and state college with an undergraduate degree in business/economics, and a minor in political science. I am 2nd generation descendant of immigrants. My grandparents came here with nothing.
I’ve been married 22 years with a boy 17, and a girl 14. I have traveled extensively in the UK, Europe, South America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. I have close friends in Scandinavia, and a close friend who works in the Middle East.
I worked for a very large iconic global company for 30 years rising to executive management before being laid off unceremoniously in the economic mess of 2008/2009. I’ve enjoyed the time off and I’m now consulting successfully. I’ve been prudent financially all my life and I am relatively well off. Politically I am a conservative, but socially liberal. I challenge the extremists and the fundamentalists on both sides because I think they destroy our chance at informed debate and policy decisions based on fact.
I have always been a voracious reader and a curious student of culture, economics, politics, and many other subjects.
Measured against utopia, we have failed; measured against reality, we have succeeded spectacularly. Far from rose colored glasses, the truth is self-evident.
You and I were born into an incredible society, at the most incredible moment of its life. In what other civilization, at what other time would you have wanted to live? The height of Rome? The height of Greece? How about the last half of the 20th century in the United States? I argue that we are comparable to Greece and Rome, and we are living it.
In the last 100 years, this country has become the leader of the world in almost every way you can think of.
We led the industrial revolution, We invented, and still lead, the information technology revolution. Virtually ALL of the software that runs the world has been conceived, written, distributed and supported by America, and still is. America leads the world in hardware technology for computers, networking, and storage. The entire world is now completely dependent on these technologies. Guttenberg’s press changed the world. We have now produced the Kindle and the iPad. What will that do?
Since WW2, this country has led the world in space exploration, hence better understanding of the universe, and physics. We still lead the world in industrial production. Our economy, despite ups, downs, scandals, crashes, inflation, deflation, stagflation, etc., has been an explosion of wealth creation that has spread globally, and the U.S. economic success has lifted billions of people out of poverty all around the world. Remember, when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. It works the other way around too.
America built the Panama Canal. America saved Europe from the Nazi’s, thereby saving the lives of millions of Jews and other undesirables targeted for extermination. America kept millions from falling under the misery of communism. We have led the world in aircraft production for 70 years and still do. We still lead the world in auto production, not Japan, not Germany.
Since WW2, our military has provided defense for dozens of countries around the world. The U.S. has always been the overwhelming presence in NATO, and we’ve been many other countries’ military forces for many decades. Those countries deployed their treasure and their resources to other things because we have taken on the burden of their defense.
We’ve developed the most prolific and efficient food production per acre the world has ever known, and spread that knowledge all over the world. Our grocery stores amaze visitors from other countries and offer more variety, more products, and safe high quality food that is the envy of the world.
The U.S. develops and manufactures more new drugs and medical equipment than every country in the world put together. Those drugs and that medical equipment are used all over the world to the benefit of billions of people.
Our Gross Domestic Product per capita is the highest, by far, of any country in the world larger than 10 million people. There’s no one even close. Today, the U.S. accounts for 25% of the world’s GDP.
Our form of government and economy, despite its faults and failings, has been a very effective structure for standard of living and quality of life. For the last 65 years, despite a population explosion, the U.S. unemployment rate has averaged around 5%. Europe has averaged 8% – 10% with less population growth. At the same time, communism was dismal, debilitating, and destructive for those living under it, with food shortages, and scarcity of nearly everything we take for granted in abundance. Europe struggled under strangling inefficiency and a smothering bureaucracy that the European Union was designed to fix, with results still in doubt. Africa is a failed continent. South American countries have had feast or famine economies and an endless variety of corrupt dictatorships. Only now are some starting to succeed in a sustainable way.
The U.S. gives more money, more aid, and more people power to help underdeveloped countries than anyone else in the world. What other country gave over a Billion dollars to fight AIDS in Africa? When the tsunami devastated Indonesia, it was only America that had the equipment, skills, logistics, and money to help, and we did. America has poured people, supplies, food, water, shelter, medicine, and elbow grease on the ground to help people from Bangladesh to Bosnia, to Somalia, to Haiti, and countless others over the last 100 years.
Every city in America has a Synagogue, a Catholic church, a Mosque, and every denomination of Christian church ever invented, sometimes on the same street. At the same time, we watched Protestants and Catholics killing each other for 20 years in Ireland. More recently, France has just banned Burqa’s and head scarves, and forcibly deported Gypsies. Switzerland just banned minarets from being built anywhere in the country. In Islamic countries, there are few if any Christian churches, and in some countries Christians are killed for being Christian.
Our legal system presumes innocence. It is far from perfect, but it bends over backwards to protect the accused. We read Miranda rights to those arrested and defense attorney’s use any and all tactics to get their clients off whether guilty or not. It produces the correct results in the overwhelming majority of cases. When it doesn’t, guilty people go free far more often than innocent people go to jail. In contrast, the last 100 years has shown us reliably, consistently, and without pause, country after country with little or no individual rights, unfettered search, seizure, and imprisonment, and often with accompanying abuse and torture.
We have free education from Kindergarten through 12th grade, then very cheap community colleges, then affordable State Universities for the final 2 years of an undergraduate degree. Underprivileged people have a wide variety of programs to help them financially or in admissions. Can education be better? Of course, but it’s free K-12, cheap beyond that, with financial aid for anyone who can’t even afford that, and it’s good. Maybe not great, maybe not as good as it should be, but it’s good. I’ve made a very successful life on public education, and I suspect you have too.
The U.S. has been THE leader in consumer rights and product safety. If you don’t believe me, travel in Europe, or consider China. Consider what the world was like for product safety and consumer rights before Ralph Nader nearly 50 years ago.
This country has been the leader on emission standards for cars and the whole world has benefited from that even though many countries have lower standards than we do.
Let’s talk about freedom. Despite bias and incompetence, our press pours out news around the clock, uncensored by the government. That cannot be said for dozens of countries around the world. In the U.S., two reporters from the Washington Post brought down a President for spying on his political opponent and trying to cover it up. The Russians were laughing in disbelief. Every reporter is salivating to get the big story, expose a bombshell, find wrongdoing. It’s an incredible system that has worked for more than 200 years.
Any American is free to speak his or her mind no matter how offensive. Burning an American flag is protected as free speech. In most countries, it is a crime. Radical Muslims stand on a street corner in Manhattan and denounce America calling for our destruction and their right to do so is protected. You write blogs about anything you want. Muslims kill people in retaliation for a Danish newspaper running a cartoon of Mohamed.
We travel freely anywhere in the country. We practice any religion we choose. We make any art we choose. We make and perform any music we choose. We have thousands of radio stations, thousands of magazines, millions of books, thousands of websites to learn about anything we choose, written by people who can say anything they want.
Our problem is a problem of baseline. We do not worry about food and shelter, we worry about self actualization.
While our stomachs are full, we complain that we don’t have more choices of eggs at the supermarket.
We call our health care a ‘crisis’ when pharmacies, supermarkets, and 7-11’s are stocked with endless varieties of over the counter pain medications, antiseptics, sterile bandages, cold remedies, cough syrups, athlete’s foot remedies, vitamins, and everything else you can think of to make us feel better and ease all manner of suffering. In most states, emergency rooms are required by law to admit and treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay. Does it need improvement? Of course.
We fly round trip coast to coast for $300. From New York we are in San Francisco in 5 hours, but we are angry that we wait too long on the tarmac when a plane is delayed, and we ask the government to fix it.
We beat ourselves up over air pollution when our air quality is far, far better than it’s ever been, and while the pollution cloud produced by China is so big, so dense, and so tenacious that it blacks out Japan at some period each year. Our air quality and water quality is superb because we fought to make it that way, no doubt. Another example of how great this system works, how spectacularly we’ve succeeded.
We are slaves to foreign oil by choice. We restrict domestic oil production, we restrict domestic natural gas production, we restrict coal mining and coal power production, and we don’t build nuclear power plants, while the rest of the world allows ALL of those things. Why? Because caribou might be impacted in Alaska. Because every 20 years some fish and some birds die in an oil spill. Because 30 years ago we contributed to acid rain (not anymore). Because a Russian nuclear power plant designed 50 years ago and built 40 years ago, with lower standards than ours, failed. Because 30 years ago there was an accident at 3 mile island which was built 40 years ago. Meanwhile the French are building hundreds of nuclear plants with 40 years of design, science, and technology progress built in.
We lament the “decline” of the middle class while the middle class watches plasma screens with TiVo, drives the safest, most fuel efficient, least polluting cars ever produced, and shops for competitive prices from around the world on their multiple computers, laptops, smart phones, and iPads. We rage that others have done better in comparison while the standard of living for those not wealthy is better than it’s ever been. The average U.S. household has more TV’s than people.
While we are speeding along in our air conditioned cars talking on our cell phones we curse AT&T for dropping our call making us dial again.
We mail packages to anywhere in the world, OVERNIGHT, and at the same time we are debilitated with dismay over our ‘crumbling’ infrastructure.
With overflowing shelves at Costco, Best Buy, and Fry’s, we come to blows over the latest hot Christmas gift, while at the same time we complain about our buying power.
Can it all be better? Of course. Do we fail? Of course. Should we continually demand better on all things? Yes, we should. Should we be satisfied with the current state of things? No, never, no matter who is in power, no matter what the economic conditions, no matter what the standard of living is, not 50 years ago, not 50 years hence. Of course improvements must be made in ALL areas. We must continue to fix inequalities and injustices everywhere we find them.
But to argue that we have not succeeded spectacularly vis a vis the true reality and challenges of the world, is wrong.
It’s quite obvious that America has indeed succeeded spectacularly. We enjoy an incredible standard of living. We have amazing freedoms. We help others. Despite failures and mistakes, we have had a bigger net positive impact on the world than any other country in the last 100 years. Do we have a monopoly on invention, progress, and innovation? Of course not. Sure we can find other countries or societies that do better than we do on one measure or another, but taken as a totality, America, with all its faults and failings, is clearly a spectacular success.
I’ll sum up with an overused Churchill quote, “it’s the worst system in the world, except for all the others.”
Three cheers for Mr. James. His observation that most of our complaining arises from a “baseline” problem or lack of context is spot on. For example, our malcontents should spend some time in China. I don’t mean swooping into Beijing, walking the Wall, eating at the Hard Rock, and riding in a cab to get a feeling for the “culture.” I mean really live there–socialize and work with locals. I did just that in Tianjin in 1998. I spent my days managing a local factory, making my way to work using local transportation, eating on the streets with my employees, and socializing with them when the opportunity presented itself. The education as to the conditions faced by the vast majority of individuals in the world was priceless. When I returned to the US, I landed in Los Angles. I had to resist the urge to kiss the floor at LAX as the whole place felt like the cleanest, politest, uncrowded, most spectaular place I had ever been. I had always hated, no, loathed LA. My baseline was forever changed.
Mr James:
Beautifully stated. My children are 5th generation Americans. I live in the Middle East, and have for many years. My biggest gripe about Americans is ungratefulness, which has escalated with the ”me generation” that assumes instant gratification is their birthright.
They fail to appreciate the immigrants before them who built the infrastructure with their bare hands, without slaves I might add since my ancestors hailed from Scandanavia and settled in the harsh cold of the Dakotas. My great grandparents travelled from New York to California in a covered wagon long before the existence of a train or plane. Imagine in only 100 years we can do this by train or plane in a matter of hours.
You are a fine example of what can be achieved in the U.S. with guts and perserverance. Your parents should be proud.
I do whine about foreign policy and too much Gov’t control, and a need for a better medical system for all. This is not Utopia, yet an amazing country. Thank you for reminding me of this, and I only wish this was printed in the New York Times for those who feel they have the right to step on a flag in broad daylight with consequence. The luxuries of the free ….
Thank you Ed for printing this, and looking forward to more rants.
Dear Ed,
My suspicion is that you felt compelled to publish this utterly misinformed commentary because you call your blog a ‘marketplace,’ a metaphor that implies free access and free choice. Marketplaces have failures, and one of the failures of free market economy is that it exacerbates, rather than alleviates, inequality.
Both you and Mr. James (and myself for that matter) represent privileged subjects in the US political economy, regardless of optimistic or pessimistic outlooks. Both of you have ready access to employment, even after being laid off. You have ready access to financial services such banks, mortgages, and consumer credit at lower rates than individuals who are poor or of color. If you want this blog to be a marketplace, my suggestion would be to not publish such drivel and actually bring the voices of individuals who are not presenting the distorted view of privilege.
Oh, Mr Swett, ditto on your comments.
I came to the M.E. back in the early 80’s. Couldn’t even locate a can of tuna, or anything remotely western to eat. I suffered Skippy peanut butter withdrawel, coupled with a lack of sanitation in many parts, hospitals that looked prehistoric, wicked desert storms, and streets that were semi paved.
I survived. Somehow. 🙂
David …. have you ever been out of the U.S.? To the third world countries? There is poor and there is dirt poor. While I cringe at seeing the poor in my own country, sorry, it simply does not compare to the poor in other countries.
I visited one country years ago, for a few months. Lived amongst the locals. One family of 8 lived in one small room. The 3 year old used to sell roasted corn on the cob daily on the corner on a handmade cardboard box. None of the children attended school. Medical care was unaffordable. No free clinics, no free Health Dept, no free lunches at school, no social services to monitor them, no welfare system, no food stamps.
First, thank you to Ed for publishing this, it is quite a nice surprise. I simply attempted to explain that rose colored glasses are not necessary to believe that America has been a great success.
As for David, I’m not sure what your point is, but let’s be clear. I grew up with no privileges. I had 2 working parents and we were paycheck to paycheck every month.
I went to public school, community college, and state college working as a busboy and a waiter for 6 years thru high school and college so I could have money and pay my own way through college. I received no financial aid, and I was given no admissions preference.
I had an upwardly mobile career because I worked 10 – 12 hour days, and made good decisions for 30 years. After I was unfairly laid off, my father’s words guided my reaction to it, “life isn’t fair”. I took a year off and now I’m earning money on my own by providing analysis and recommendations to clients with knowledge that I’ve gained over a lifetime.
I was careful with my money and I have a nest egg to retire on when the time comes. I get good loan rates because I have been responsible my whole life to earn good credit.
ANYONE could have done what I did. ANYONE can do it now.
If you call my essay “drivel”, I challenge you to check the facts I cited and tell everyone which ones are untrue.
I second many of David’s remarks. Just because other countries don’t have the same opportunities (or credit cards or useless slogans) as the United States, it does not make me want to weep with joy that I am so lucky to live here. With privilege comes other evils. Also, more importantly and what is also lost on many, is that with opportunity come responsibility. Are we maximizing what this country has to offer? Hell no. That is what makes the United States such a frustrating country. Things here are allocated poorly – some people have too many while others have too little; no one uses resources optimally, from paychecks to space in the newspaper; people’s consumption destroys the planet as well as their body; states spend more on prisons than on schools; political representation is limited to those who can afford it.
It’s great that this country provides so many resources and freedoms, but that just means that we have the raw materials to be spectacular, not that we are in a perpetual state of spectacularness. I’m not a boomer, so I can’t remember the seeds of what made the US exceptional: strong unions; social movements; a world ravaged by WWII that needed US manufacturing products that created its relative dominance; or even the Cold War-era propaganda that would make me think that 90% of space travel is not a colossal waste of money. (“I can’t pay no doctor bills… while Whitey’s on the moon” seems more relevant to talking about this country than whether a telescope is near Pluto.) All I know is that many of these things that seem worth self-congratulation will not be relevant in 20 years, when many boomers are senile or passed-on and members of my generation are dealing with the debt and failed industries. I assume, VD, that when you speak of the “me generation” you speak of those younger than boomers or their parents. How ironic that many who label us the “me generation” are the ones making the mess that we will have to clean up once they are long gone. Which generation is selfish one in this scenario? The generation who never learned to walk and who only to suck at a drying teat, or the generation who walked away from their responsibility to teach their youth and live sustainably? So, yeah, congrats for living in the second half of the 20th century; and thank god that you won’t have to deal with that period’s consequences.
I have not even gotten into how how many of Mr. James’ statements are half-truths: how employment rates are measured different in the USA and Europe so that US rates are depressed; how education costs for overcrowded public universities have skyrocketed over the past 20 years and has kept many smart people from seeking higher education; how US and Western interests have assisted in corrupting political and social systems in Africa, Asia, South America, etc; how other countries currently have higher rates of economic growth that dwarf the USA; how the US GDP is so high and yet the poor have to little; how the disparity in GDP and GNP reflect how proportionally little assets are staying in this country; how we can fly across the country for $300 (sometimes) and yet that does not show the environmental impact of airline travel, the amount that the government subsidizes such flight, and the fact that many don’t have time to travel because they are handcuffed to their jobs; how many of us have no choice whether or not we are slaves to foreign oil because we don’t have industrial or political mechanisms to promote electronic vehicles or enhanced public transportation; how the US tries to limit international treaties’ requirements on fuel efficiency; how 711/supermarkets don’t provide cheap fruits and vegetables so that people instead opt for white bread and top ramen; how there aren’t the kind of institutions in place to counteract wealthy interests and represent interest of the poor (thus eliminating the mechanism that brought the 40 hour work week, social security, unemployment insurance, civil rights); how a terrible tax system as well as national and household overspending (for things that aren’t worth it) will put future generations in a stranglehold… shall I go on? So few of these achievements
Finally, to quote the brilliant Propaghandi’s “Resisting Tyrannical Government (it’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it)”: And yes, I recognize the irony that the very system I oppose affords me the luxury of biting the hand that feeds; but that’s exactly why privileged fucks like me should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream, until everyone has everything they need.
Keep looking critically, Ed and David, lest we rest on our tarnished laurels and become worse than we are.
Well said Scott.
But I want to speak on the central claim that we can assess the success of our nation against the conditions of another nation. This is a completely fallacious form of argument for one simple reason: capitalism is a world system. When US-based transnational corporations manufacture parts in China, assemble other parts in Ciudad Juarez, and then sell the final commodity stateside it’s quite obvious to see that we’re talking about a world system. This doesn’t even begin to get into the global movement of finance capital, such that the credit used to make that commodity might come from surplus cash from oil wealthy middle eastern countries, south and southeast Asian, or even wealthy US citizens investing in the stock exchange.
Ok, so we’re in a world system. What does that mean? Well, first, it means that you can’t use the impoverished conditions in China as a way to pat ourselves on the back. China’s transition to capitalism – yes China is transitioning to capitalism despite the Communist party controlling the government – means that Chinese peasants are being forced off of their land, and into urban centers where a large, flexible, unskilled labor force is needed. This is nothing new – when industrialization first emerged around Manchester the labor force was dispossessed peasants English peasants, and the same story can be told about the US when recently freed slaves were dispossessed from land and traveled north and west into factory work.
Industrialization is predicated on an utterly dispossessed and exploited labor force with no other options for subsistence other than to sell their labor for an income in order to survive. China is rapidly going through this process today. And with very few labor and environmental regulations it is an ugly process, much like it was an ugly process in England and in the United States, and everywhere else where industrial production touches down. There is nothing particularly ‘Chinese’ about an overcrowded or unsanitary urban environment, just like there is nothing particularly ‘American’ about a sanitary city – we are talking about the same political, economic, and social processes happening differently in different places and times. Furthermore, it is US corporations pushing this process in China – along with Chinese corporations and the Chinese government.
My own feeling is that it is arrogant to feel good about the country I live in when the corporations in my country are driving the dismal conditions across the globe. This is not to say that US citizens are responsible for the ills of corporations working in other countries, only to say that I don’t feel we’ve succeeded — it’s an illusion to look at the number of televisions in a US home versus poverty in China and call it a day. Political economy is much more complicated.
Finally, I refuse to address at length the statement that anyone can move ahead in this country. When we look at the evidence (racial discrimination in housing markets, in labor markets, in retail markets, in financial markets, and in schools), such statements amount to ignoring contemporary racism.
The central question was whether America is a success, compared to utopia vs. compared to the realities of life and the world we live in. If your only measure of success is against perfection, then there is never anything to discuss, just ranting and raving, and you would always be right to call a America a failure. Quite convenient, but intellectually lazy. And you don’t need to be arrogant to acknowledge that whatever we have been doing, has worked. It’s not perfect, and being run by human beings, it can fail, and it can be corrupted. But there’s no denying the success of this country over the last 100 years.
Capitalism is indeed a popular system, but it is not universally embraced around the world and there are endlessly varying degrees and forms of it.
But that isn’t even an important point. It’s not just capitalism. Our systems of laws, our system of rights, land ownership, freedoms, opportunity to succeed, our form of a 3 branch government, and dozens of other basic underpinnings of our society have, together, made the U.S. a spectacular success. Not without fault, not without problems, but an undeniable success nonetheless. Not ethnically superior, not intellectually superior, but everything working together has produced a highly successful nation. Ask yourself why, if capitalism is global as you say, no other country has produced the results of the U.S.?
That you are somehow unable to accept that America is and has been a great success, is something to behold. You are a professional victim, a conspiracy theorist, and an excuse machine.
Some people see 5% unemployment in a country of 310 million as a good thing. You see as exploitation of workers. Amazing.
I will stand firmly by the clear fact, that ANYONE can create a very successful life on public education leading to a decent job and decent pay. My grandfather got off the boat with $27 dollars in his pocket and one suitcase. My father was a public school teacher. I worked since 15 years old mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms, hauling garbage, and making my own way with no privileges whatsoever.
There is also no reason that anyone could do even better than just ‘decent’.
What if a black man born to a Kenyan father who abandoned his family, was raised by his white grandparents while his mother was absent on and off, were to become President Of The United States?
What would you say then?
To determine whether or not something has “worked”, you need to determine towards what end it strives. Has the US system worked for you? Apparently. Has it worked for others, who may have other interests? It depends. Will the US be a success for the next 100 years? In other words, will it “work” for future generations*? Doubtful.
To determine whether something is a success, you also have to measure it against expectations. That’s obviously a hard thing to measure for an entire society. I am not very proud of this country – especially over the past 40 years – because it has not lived up to what I see as its potential. For this reason, it’s hard to hear someone else deem such fleeting accomplishments as meriting “success”. Another strong consideration for me in whether or not the USA is a “success” is whether the conditions exist to progress many of the celebrated aspects of this society. I firmly believe that they do not. Employment, social justice, artistic expression, (relevant) technological development (such as environmental efficiency), political participation, intellectual thought, wealth distribution, promoting human rights internationally, a truly representative government – these areas that make a break this country (in my opinion) will all be (highly) underwhelming relative to its potential. Sure, in theory, this country could pick itself up from the bootstraps and actualize greatness. But are the conditions present for this to occur? Probably not. As you insightfully observe, Mr. James, TiVO is more important to most than more dire things, such as voting or education. Were this the case when many of these celebrated accomplishments were met, much less would have been achieved. So, your celebration seems much more like a eulogy than a praise for a functioning entity. As someone who has to live another 50 or 60 years, I find that kind of a downer.
Also, Mr. James, just because you and Obama “made it” does not really prove anything. As someone whose achievements measured against “hard knocks” could outdo most, I find that line of argument rather weak. There are certainly some necessary conditions that must exist for people to live well, or, maybe more importantly, for people to know that living well exists and can be achieved. I am sure that Obama received tons of encouragement and support, as did you, that many people in poor rural areas and ghettos (and even some middle class neighborhoods) can’t even imagine. That goes a long way. To think that anyone can “make it” despite any situation is like saying you can get gold from cabbage. Sometimes things are just not possible. This country needs to be sensitive to that. Believing too much that the individual and not that their surrounding conditions contributes to individual and societal success is frankly what is making this country much worse.
I am very glad that life worked out for you and happy that you are so proud of this country, Mr. James, but it’s dangerous to get too lost in the hype while this country crumbles (again, relative to its own potential, not China’s current conditions). While your personal pride does not do much to hurt this country (I hope you aren’t taking much in this argument personally), this wholesale belief that seems popular to many in this country does create severe damage.
* David is definitely taking the longer view of looking at this country relative to the greater global system. I am deliberately being blind to those (very) good points and mainly looking at these arguments from the perspective internal to this country.
I’m just not with you Scott. I think 100 years is long enough to demonstrate sustained success. As for what the future holds, no one know, but I believe our basic foundational systems will serve us well for at least your lifetime.
Once again, you claim that the the only real measure is against ‘potential’, i.e., perfection, utopia. No wonder you can’t admit the obvious and have a pessimistic view of the future.
Finally, ANYONE, can succeed just fine over the next the 50 – 60 years, without privileges, and I’m sorry, but when a black man with a funny name can become President, a lot of excuses for lack of success goes out the window.
It’s not about sustained success in the past, it’s about worked towards sustained success for all foreseeable generations. Why should I be proud of a country that overlooked my and future generations’ lives? The USA has not been successful in my lifetime and there isn’t much to feel good about in terms of future progress. (For the record, I work in politics and policy; I am doing my part to help fix things and so this argument is not some excuse for inaction.) Great things have happened, I will certainly admit that, but for my lifetime this country has been in a sustained decline.
I haven’t even used the word “utopia” or “perfection” in any of my comments. Yes, potential is an important measure – it measures what is possible and what is likely. I am not even trying to claim that the USA should completely maximize its potential. But, it has not measured well against its potential, regardless. Just because the USA isn’t reaching its potential 100% of the time does not mean that meeting its potential 40% of the time is “success”.
Thinking that being black with a funny name is a significant impediment to being successful is so 1963. It’s not about your color or name, it about your upbringing.
You may keep redefining the question all you like. I made a simple point that America has been a success. Everything I listed is true, and the point is obvious. I didn’t ask anyone to be proud. In addition, I was also very clear that there are many problems and failings.
You don’t believe that America has been a success over the last 100 years, you believe that America is in “sustained” decline, that America has somehow “overlooked” future generations, you are not proud of America, and you are pessimistic about future progress. Got it.
Wow. I’ve watched all these posts go by and I’m amazed. Tom made factual points and I for one, am proud of America. But look at the negative reactions!
Scott is pathetic. I’m so glad I’m not him.
Here’s a formula for success in the future Scott: Get good grades. When you’re old enough, get a job, like a busboy. Go to community college. Get good grades. Finish 2 years at a state school to get your undergraduate. Get good grades. Get an entry level job at a company that has health benefits (most likely a corporation). Work hard. Impress your employers with dedication.
That formula will work for anyone in this country. If you’re poor you’ll get free breakfast and lunch K-12, and financial aid for college. If you’re a minority, you’ll get special consideration in admissions. I am proud of all that too.
And yes, when a fatherless black man can become President, that’s proof that anyone can succeed in America, and it makes me even more proud.
I’m tired of all the bellyaching of the America haters like Scott.
I will only address that last point by Jen G. in what has been an excellent exchange of views. I don’t regard Scott to be an “America hater,” and I think to label him in that way diminishes his very valid perspective.
The disagreement, boiled down to its basics is whether the glass (America) is half empty or half full. Neither Scott nor Tom nor anyone else who has weighed in really disagrees about the facts. America has been a great experiment in representative democracy built around a capitalistic system. But the experiment is ongoing, and the parameters of measurement are constantly changing.
It is vitally important that good Americans like Scott keep pushing for the kind of success that good Americans like Tom are anxious to acknowledge. Scott is no less a good American for pushing than Tom is, and Tom is no less a good American for acknowledging than Scott is.
Bottom line: whether the glass is half empty or half full, it continues to hold water. How much it will hold in the future is, perhaps, the most important question.
Thanks to all for this exchange. And special thanks to Tom for doing what I have been unable to do in all these years of work on this blog: elicit meaningful and intense intellectual dialogue.
Thanks Scott. *smiles* I knew one day I’d regret this psuedonym once it was abbreviated.
I do not view the U.S. as a country of corporations. I view the U.S. by it’s people. I have been to several countries, lived in a few as well. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a country which consisted of such creative people comibined with perserverance. There exists a respect for intellectuals coupled with a respect for the artist. I would cite Walt Disney as a prime example of both. A creative genius!
As for perseverance, I would bet my last Ben Franklin that if the U.S. economy completely failed tomorrow, most (yes, most) Americans would pull themselves up from their bootstraps, decline from *whining* incessantly, group together collectively, and rebuild from the ASHES without Government assistance. Personally speaking, I would plant a garden, rebuild, care for my neighbors and survive.
Oh, and those who don’t survive? They simply did not grasp the concept of immigrating to America to begin with …..
Oh, you’re welcome Ed. Somehow I think you knew this was a hot topic. I agree with you. Respecting everyones opinion brings about diplomatic dialogue.
Also, I am not trying to come off as the eternal patriot. I prefer to see the big picture, and am grateful for the simple things in life regardless of where I am on the planet ….
Hi all.
I’m Ed’s son, and David and Scott are my friends. The three of us take the “America: fix it or lose it” viewpoint, counter to this “love it or leave it” sentiment that persists in many of these comments. For the record: David lived for half a year in Barbados. Scott has followed Tom’s exact educational model: public k-12, cheap community college, then UC Berkeley, where David and I also went. Scott went on to law school at U Penn, thanks to good grades and hard work. David is a Ph D candidate in the public education system in New York: CUNY, where he studies (and teaches) social geography. I myself hold a Masters of Fine Arts.
It is indeed true that we have all done pretty well for ourselves, that our system affords each citizen the chance to make something of himself (or to watch TV and drink beer if he so chooses), but herein lies the problem: Tom, you have yours, and I have mine, but we collectively don’t have what matters most: ours: our government. Representational as it is on paper, is anything but. The revolving door between major corporations and public service makes sure of that. Campaigns, though won by votes, are financed by the superrich, and their agendas are in stark contrast to ours. They favor a decimation of all things public and shared: transportation, education, health, etc. It’s right there on the Tea Party’s mission statement. Bush (and Regan and all other neocons) are successfully dismantling the very charter that made all that you love possible.
The problem is that most of the US is persuaded by the very flag-waving that you embody, Tom, and as long as a Republican espouses a few of the bullet-points that you mentioned, he’s bought your vote, and will then go behind your back and make a deal with Verizon and Comcast that will limit your freedoms on the internet (for example). Or a Democrat. Maybe I’m just thinking of Barack Obama, who has done exactly that in regard to this ridiculous tax cut extension, and many other “compromises”. Not all of America reads the NY Times Op Ed columns, but those who have any influence should certainly heed the advice of such professional thinkers.
Speeches like yours feel good. The country needs them when it braces itself for something terrible, like war, or a depression. Make no mistake: we are in a downfall now, much like the previous empires you mentioned. I envy your generation, who got to live through the 60’s and 70’s – such great times of sex and drugs and self-satisfaction. Unfortunately, that was the peak for the USA. Like the Roman empire, even great and benevolent men (which Obama might be) are powerless to stop its demise. We are faced with dire issues: climate change, energy crises, a failed economic system (responsible for all of it), and yet we do nothing to change it. Change is so badly needed right now, and the very candidate voted in to do so cannot, because he does not work for the 51% of America wise enough to see its need; he works for his biggest campaign contributors. The Democrats, sadly, play to the same deep pockets that the Republicans do.
To be optimistic and patriotic in this way, Tom, is to be bamboozled. There are terrible trends in America, and it behooves us to consider them realistically, to consider how they develop and how to stop them. Obesity, personal debt, the belief in creationism, the pervasive ignorance and bigotry that our country seems to embrace in pandemic proportions. Fucking reality television. The shake weight. Bristol Palin, Candie foundation spokesperson/dancing-with-the-stars contestant. The incessant violence (without consequences) in Hollywood and all media.
None of this is an accident. And I can tell you who’s laughing: the richest people in this country, whose hoarded wealth skews America’s real value. Our value is on the decline. If you don’t believe me, travel to another country.
Keith,
These are all excellent observations and I agree with most of them. But this is another post that misinterprets what I wrote. I was not flag waving at all. My essay was a response to the question, “Has America been a success?”. It certainly has been.
If you read my entire post, you’ll see that I believe we’ve done many things wrong, made many mistakes, many things need to be fixed, and we should not be satisfied with the current state of things. But my point remains. I am not a Tea Party supporter, and I believe this too shall pass.
I disagree with you on one important point. You say, “make no mistake, we are in a downfall now”. If you are talking about the next 200 years, you might be right. All great civilizations eventually burn out. But any expectation of imminent demise is misplaced.
Our impact on the world is so huge, our lead in critical things like our economy and invention/innovation engine, and the sheer size of our capabilities, dwarf any other country. These things have a momentum to them, so long as the government doesn’t kill the economy, and choke off the invention/innovation engine. These are the things you should be worried about the most.
Had you been around in the late 70’s, you would have heard a lot of people fully convinced that this was the final downward spiral of the US. We we were in worse condition than we are now. Runaway inflation, interest rates at 18% (currently we’re at about 4%), gasoline shortages to the point where gasoline was rationed to all Americans, unemployment of over 12%, aerospace industry collapsing, Chrysler bankrupt, federal deficits every single year even though personal income tax rates were far higher than they are now.
How about the great depression?
We have weathered all of those storms. Why?
I think we all need a little perspective, that’s all.
Great piece, Professor Telfeyan!
But to Keith: You can’t be serious here. You are right. . .but . . .do you really feel what you say?
Just something about your cadence makes me doubt that your views are really your own . . .Must be nice having attorney parents to break it all down for you!