What a Big, Old World
Thought-provoking piece from New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof this week. (Also see the related multimedia story.)
It is amusing to me that Americans hate New Yorkers so much for their arrogance, when so many of the same cultural arrogance lies in the fervent nationalism of people throughout this country. Several months ago, a national politician was widely scorned for suggesting that the time will come in which the US is no longer the sole, dominant military power in the world. Even as an American, I was astounded that verbalizing this historic certainty could result in near universal scorn - it's like getting upset because someone said that the sun was going to burn out someday.
New York is the world capital, and it's full of really fantastic people, places and sights. And the United States is the world's biggest economy. So what? The failure to recognize the value of trade - both intellectual/social (anti-immigration) and goods (anti-NAFTA/CAFTA "liberals" in bed with aging, inefficient industries and Big Agribusiness like Sugar), and the pathetic level of investment in physical as well as human infrastructure, leave me with a lot of doubt as to this country's ability to even remain an elite power, no less THE elite power. How is it people fail to see that free trade requires extensive investment in human capital, or that the gains will be enjoyed by only a small portion of the population? Why is it that so many of today's conservatives insist that the answer to bad government is NO government, rather than good, effective and efficient government? How can the party in power turn surpluses into deficits, while the major concerns of the electorate (safety, health care, jobs) all require substantial financial investment?
It is amusing to me that Americans hate New Yorkers so much for their arrogance, when so many of the same cultural arrogance lies in the fervent nationalism of people throughout this country. Several months ago, a national politician was widely scorned for suggesting that the time will come in which the US is no longer the sole, dominant military power in the world. Even as an American, I was astounded that verbalizing this historic certainty could result in near universal scorn - it's like getting upset because someone said that the sun was going to burn out someday.
New York is the world capital, and it's full of really fantastic people, places and sights. And the United States is the world's biggest economy. So what? The failure to recognize the value of trade - both intellectual/social (anti-immigration) and goods (anti-NAFTA/CAFTA "liberals" in bed with aging, inefficient industries and Big Agribusiness like Sugar), and the pathetic level of investment in physical as well as human infrastructure, leave me with a lot of doubt as to this country's ability to even remain an elite power, no less THE elite power. How is it people fail to see that free trade requires extensive investment in human capital, or that the gains will be enjoyed by only a small portion of the population? Why is it that so many of today's conservatives insist that the answer to bad government is NO government, rather than good, effective and efficient government? How can the party in power turn surpluses into deficits, while the major concerns of the electorate (safety, health care, jobs) all require substantial financial investment?
posted by Jason at 15:28
3 Comments:
Another good bit on CAFTA:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301319.html
Support the world's poor - encourage development and trade!
And yet we seem to keep finding unholy and unnatural ways to prolong our reign: we siphon off the talent of other nations to compensate for our increasingly bankrupt educational farm system, provide the military for our economic rivals (S. Korea, Japan) so that they never again may become threatening, and simply ignore developing countries lest they grow and become equals rather than welfare clients. It' s been an effective formula thus far, but who knows how long it will last? Since technology has altered history's chronology so much, speculation on the duration of modern empires seems more like blind guesswork than actual analysis. Suffice it to say, as did your previous commentor, "this too shall pass."
I'm not so sure that it is a certainty that the U.S. will someday cease to be the most powerful nation in the world. I think that this is going to depend largely on how things play out in the future.
For instance, if we find a way to stop the free-for-all of government programs then we have a chance at staying on top. If the socialist governments in Europe collapse under the weight of their own entitlement system, if China becomes a democracy, if India and Pakistan make peace, if if if if if. Who knows, but anything could happen. It should be fun watching everything unfold.
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