Do you still have faith in America? What's next for the USA
I was talking to a friend today about the state of the USA and how we both feel about the future of the country. I feel quite ambivalent - part of me feels as though the USA is on a downward trajectory and things are only going to get worse due to political/racial issues, mounting national debt, and a lack of unity as a country, among other issues. Another part of me feels like we have been through tough times, and we will come out of these tough times better and hopefully be brought closer together as individuals.
What does WSO think? How do you all feel about the future of the good ole U S of A? Is it time to get out while you can, or can we turn this ship around?
lol
I forget who said it, maybe Churchill, but “America always does the right thing....after they’ve tried everything else”
Frankly, I’d like to see basic competency tests (as in, what year was awemica founded etc) to allow voting because I think that’s the origin of 50% of America’s problems. Will never happen but hey, a boy can dream.
Love that Churchill quote, although America's history with tests to vote aren't encouraging from a historical perspective...
When the educated knows all about systemic racism and nothing about the 4th of July...
Basic competency test for just voters? I say politicians too.
Politicians ought to take a qualification test on basic economics, history, and statistics. Also would like to see some psychological test to screen out any sociopaths/psychopaths/narcissists.
I've had enough of politicians ruining this country...
Bearish
To quote Roger Cooper from Mad Men "Some people don't believe in this country".
There are ups and downs, and this is definitely a down.. However, there are few places in the world can you complain about your government, especially as an illegal immigrant, and not be killed/imprisoned?
Additionally, in the US, if you are smart and work hard, with some luck, you can become as successful as people that have lived here their entire lives. This doesn't happen in so many places in the world.
Forever bullish on US.
That used to be true and was the reason for the USA’s greatness. But nowadays, the US ranks 27th on the global social mobility index, behind most European countries. Yeah it’s better than, say, Venezuela, but it’s still alarmingly low compared to the rest of the developed world. You can find this rising economic stratification of sorts pretty much everywhere in the US nowadays, even and especially in education, which was meant to be the main vector of social mobility - something like 80% of Harvard’s student body comes from the richest 20% and 20% from the richest 1%. This to me is especially worrying, given how fundamental to this country social mobility and the ideal of the self-made man have been.
So 80% of Harvard students come from a home with income equivalent to both parents being teachers? Sounds normal to me.
The American dream is alive and well, people just aren’t willing to work hard enough for it. Anyone with a pickup truck and some on site experience can be out there roofing, plumbing, etc. and these trades pay extremely well.
WTF are you smoking.
With the quarantine, the real question is "what is he not smoking?"
America is going downhill, and everyone can see it. It used to be undeniably the greatest country, and now everyone else is catching up.
You guys are getting soft. The world has been trying to take us down a few pegs for the past 75 years. Don’t buy the hype. This country is huge, both economically and in landmass. Get out there. People are good here, the news sucks.
This.
Hah. I laugh at this ungrounded optimism.
The US has been falling behind on basic education for decades. Go out there and ask people basic history questions and what not. What's worse? Average problem solving skill of an American is terrrible. People are f***ing DUMB.
Our higher education is awesome but our regular education fucking sucks. Sooo many unqualified teachers and kids who don't want to learn.
Whether we like it or not, the US is an elitist society where the well-educated and the smart run it all.
Also, did I mention that dumb people have more kids than smart people???
I have 3 major predictions, mainly influenced by the 'stupidest possible timeline' theorem, from which it follows that our political developments will come straight out of the WWE writers' room wastebasket. Overall that means the following:
1. Biden wins 2020 election because accidental racism is better than regular racism. Joe's got an endless supply of 'gaff capital' which allows him to declare people 'not black' on The Breakfast Club and just kinda walk it off. In other words he'll sweep up undecided voters because, 'Sleepy Joe' is less scary than, 'Crooked Hillary.' He'll use his political Xanax to yeet us back to 2016 and give us 4 more years of moderate social change. 2. <span class="keyword_link"><a href="/company/amazon" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span> and other big tech should stick around until they do something 'too evil' which could galvanize public support. No matter how high Jeff sets the Capitalism High-Score, there's still too much demand for doo-dads with one-click purchase options. Even as Big Jeff unifies our fractured nation states, grows his money/skull pile until it blots out the sun, and takes his place as the God-Emperor of mankind, we'll keep auto-renewing amazon prime and getting those sweet, sweet, Whole Foods discounts. 3. Bulge Bracket (Only available from Amazon) becomes the standout office comedy in North America. The show as it exists is taken to a secluded glen and mercy-killed, and the IP is relaunched as a finance-oriented version of Scrubs where the main characters have wacky inner lives and spend hours upon hours figuring out who keeps vaping in the bathroom and what comical punishment to inflict on the intern who #REFfed out the model.I’m optimistic to a fault and I will be regarding America. As much as we have our differences, there are more similarities. We are the greatest country. Need economic activity? We have consumers who love to spend money (thinking the opposite is Japan). Love that. Want the perception of transfer of power between the right and left? We have that, an independent voting bloc and low informational voters. Not to mention term limits and different houses of Congress so you feel you have representation and sling mud at the other guy (All-American pastime). There is hope not hopelessness there (think Syria, Iran, Russia, and prob China with lifetime leaders; Turkey you have a thin majority but consistent).
The sausage making that is America is a fantastic institution.
The optimist in me tends to look at institutions as symbols that endures with time. The person in the White House is not America, nor will be the next person. They are there and then gone. Just like my alma mater, with their administration agree with or not, I still love the school. Now, is that the objective way of seeing things? Maybe not on a point in time, but you asked about the future of America.
This point in time.
This virus exposes weakness for what we are. Free spirited, more optimistic, short term thinking, consumerism, non-calculating of risks, and also social, passionate, generous, and kind. We expose ourselves to the virus because we love what we do. We are who we are. Many of us take dumb risks - but we do that all the time, otherwise we’d have a declining population, be a saver nation. In some ways I look at us as a pet who just shit itself but doesn’t understand. What made the US great in previous paragraphs I’ve stated is what is making us fail during the pandemic. It’s unique, it’s shitty, but it shall pass.
If you look at the great race, only China (ex-HK in the past form) and Southeast Asia I’m bullish on from a gut feel. I don’t know enough about India, Brazil, or Africa (I’ve never been). I’m sure all these places, better days ahead from a GDP perspective. China is big enough and has its shit together enough to challenge us. If you feel down because someone else is up; don’t feel that way. If you want the way of living of China, live there. If you want an American life, live here or within the Western construct. I don’t think of China as the CCP, abet 70 years in existence as the ruling entity, China is, well China and its baseline in the world is what it is, higher than the past 200 years.
The great race will be for outer space, AI, and the human genome. These oceans are beyond the limits of our democracy currently, and more governed by our ethics and will be more refined over time. I have strong belief in our scientists and higher education, the best and brightest. Climate change we will get, but like the dumb pet, we can see neither here or there. The states will have to lead, and they have.
For the United States, you can look to the youth for inspiration and hope. How they endured say missing out their senior year, their graduations, grad parties; and the change is just beginning. I hope what comes out of the ashes is more empathy, more looking out for each other.
A Harvard Business Review article says that a 70 year old today is quite different from a 80 year old due to different generational defining moments. 9-11, wars, great recession(s), pandemic shape us under 40 types. But the sausage making apparatus endures. That is America, one big coping mechanism of what life throws at us. We are flawed, we are diverse in our comings and goings, but we are destined to survive shocks. With survival, the trend is your friend. That’s why I’m bullish on America. I still believe in the American Experiment, and it will succeed where others flash and then dim and reinvent themselves.
Great read, but I swear halfway through reading I heard Star Spangled Banner play in the background
goldie have faith in goldie and in energy
cause us humans are just energy conversion devices amirite boiz
https://merchantmachine.co.uk/china-vs-us/
The legacy Clinton, Bush and Obama.
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And I'm sure the US imposing tariffs on its own allies must've helped.
TDS
If we don't have education reform, I say America is gonna become a regional power, not a superpower, by 2050.
I'm gonna get so much MS for this, but we ought to pull what Singapore did and restrict dumb people from having kids. And smart people better start having tons of sex and kids. America needs to take a page from France.
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