The US is in much better shape than you would think
Things are better than either side tells you. In 1958, the Kingston Trio first sang the “Merry Minuet.” Those old enough to remember this lively little tune will recall that after a melodic recitation of all that is wrong in the world, the last stanza of the song suggests it doesn’t matter because “some lovely day someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.”
While the locations and disasters chronicled in the “Merry Minuet” have changed substantially in the past 62 years, the message has not. People can be mesmerized, and in some instances paralyzed, by a multitude of pestilences and disasters that seem to inundate the country and the world.
COVID-19, hurricanes in the Southeast, fires in the West, wind storms in the Midwest conspire to create a malaise of events that place our lifestyles and perhaps our existence at risk.
It is at these times when the doomsayers have their day. Added to the cacophony of problems is the forthcoming and very contentious presidential election, including the maelstrom of reports about the awful shape the country and the world are in.
According to many of the pundits of doom, this inevitable slide into disarray is the result of runaway capitalism, which rewards the rich at the devastating expense of the poor. They purport that more people today live in poverty, lack adequate housing and are hungrier than ever before.
Those adhering to the downtrodden view of America and the world often refer to Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.” This French socialist economist writes about the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the 1990-2010
period. He blames the excesses of capitalism for this supposed abhorrent income disequilibrium.
However, Piketty’s focus on income distribution in a 20-year period fails to realize the actual increase in the world’s well-being.
In his recent book “Progress: Ten
Reasons to Look Forward to the Future,” Swedish researcher, Johan Norberg, a former self-described left-anarchist, traces the advances made in the world including the 20 years covered by Piketty.
Two hundred years ago as capitalism was gaining steam in the U.S. and
many other parts of the world, there were 60 million people who were not living in poverty. Today there are more than 6.5 billion people not living in poverty. Further, the largest and fastest decline in poverty occurred between 1981 and 2015, including the very years that Piketty bemoans the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
The reduction in poverty in the
U.S. and the world due partially to the growth in capitalism has resulted in many other societal benefits. World life expectancy has more than doubled in the past 100 years. Hunger has diminished substantially. Famines most recently centered in socialist countries such as China, Cambodia, Ethiopia, North Korea and the former USSR have been substantially reduced.
This is especially true since Chairman Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” socialist experiment in China at the end of the 1950s resulted in the death of 45 million Chinese.
The fact is that innovative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit, when allowed to operate in an open and mostly free economy, works.
Many do not recognize this reality, and as a result have negative views about market-driven economic policies. This in turn has led to an overly pessimistic view of the future, which is exacerbated by immediate concerns brought to a head during this contentious election season.
While the difficulties surrounding COVID-19 and the recent diminished economic circumstances individuals, companies and communities face cannot be denied, it remains important to occasionally step back and look at how far we have come.
There is considerably less poverty, greater individual wealth and economic well-being in this country and in the world today than there was even 30 years ago. And remember, those 30 years included both Republican and Democratic administrations and congresses.
So it does not seem to be the parties but rather the policies to which they adhere that paves the way for growth and prosperity.