Monday, December 01, 2003
I responded to claims of a well known conservative columist's claim that socially and economically things have improved by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years.
"I agree with you. Things are not nearly as bad as many of the cynics contend and the demographic picture in the States is much better than the one in Europe. That said, I would not say that “we may look back on the period beginning in the middle of the 1980's as the Great Rejuvenation. American life has improved in almost every measurable way, and far from regressing toward the mean, the U.S. has become a more exceptional nation.” Indeed, far from it.
Sure, Teenage pregnancy rates are down, but they have declined elsewhere too and more importantly US rates are higher than in other Western countries. Similar things can be said about crime. As everyone knows, crime rates tend to go down as the percentage of males in the 18-29 year old age bracket goes down and so crimes rates in the Western world are, on the whole, down. However, whereas a reduction in the crime rate has been accompanied by mushrooming incarnation rates in the States, prison populations in other Western countries have not similarly gone up. Today, something in the magnitude of 1 in 3 African American men has spent some time in prison and murder rates in cities, such as Detroit, bear more of resemblance to cities in crime ridden South Africa and Brazil than to anywhere else in the Western world.
On the whole, as your Atlantic Monthly pointed out in the State of the Nation edition, American has a dual nature. Its university system is the envy of the world. In terms of research and development, particularly in the medical field, it is far out in front. Productivity rates are high. Home ownership rates are high. Unemployment is relatively low. At the same time, though, despite being worked like dogs and enjoying far less vacation time than Europeans, personal debt is higher than pretty much anywhere else. What is more, although the steady decline in real wages was momentarily arrested under Clinton, it was actually just huge gains by the top 10 percent of wage earners that threw out the mean. The gains of the top 10 percent coupled with the continued decline in the wages of the other 90% have helped solidify Americans place near the bottom in terms economic equality. Such inequality in turn does not bold well for those who seek to reduce crime. Finally, there is a whole host of problems associated with nearly 50 million Americans who have no Health Care coverage. Problems bad enough for the Atlantic Monthly to state that in terms of many social indicators, the US resembles parts of third world.
Now, I am not sure that this dual nature can be corrected and as a Canadian, for entirely selfish reasons, I am not sure that I want it to. A kinder gentler US economy might improve the plight of some of its citizens, but it might loose some of its economic dynamism in the process and Canada might be the worse for it."
"I agree with you. Things are not nearly as bad as many of the cynics contend and the demographic picture in the States is much better than the one in Europe. That said, I would not say that “we may look back on the period beginning in the middle of the 1980's as the Great Rejuvenation. American life has improved in almost every measurable way, and far from regressing toward the mean, the U.S. has become a more exceptional nation.” Indeed, far from it.
Sure, Teenage pregnancy rates are down, but they have declined elsewhere too and more importantly US rates are higher than in other Western countries. Similar things can be said about crime. As everyone knows, crime rates tend to go down as the percentage of males in the 18-29 year old age bracket goes down and so crimes rates in the Western world are, on the whole, down. However, whereas a reduction in the crime rate has been accompanied by mushrooming incarnation rates in the States, prison populations in other Western countries have not similarly gone up. Today, something in the magnitude of 1 in 3 African American men has spent some time in prison and murder rates in cities, such as Detroit, bear more of resemblance to cities in crime ridden South Africa and Brazil than to anywhere else in the Western world.
On the whole, as your Atlantic Monthly pointed out in the State of the Nation edition, American has a dual nature. Its university system is the envy of the world. In terms of research and development, particularly in the medical field, it is far out in front. Productivity rates are high. Home ownership rates are high. Unemployment is relatively low. At the same time, though, despite being worked like dogs and enjoying far less vacation time than Europeans, personal debt is higher than pretty much anywhere else. What is more, although the steady decline in real wages was momentarily arrested under Clinton, it was actually just huge gains by the top 10 percent of wage earners that threw out the mean. The gains of the top 10 percent coupled with the continued decline in the wages of the other 90% have helped solidify Americans place near the bottom in terms economic equality. Such inequality in turn does not bold well for those who seek to reduce crime. Finally, there is a whole host of problems associated with nearly 50 million Americans who have no Health Care coverage. Problems bad enough for the Atlantic Monthly to state that in terms of many social indicators, the US resembles parts of third world.
Now, I am not sure that this dual nature can be corrected and as a Canadian, for entirely selfish reasons, I am not sure that I want it to. A kinder gentler US economy might improve the plight of some of its citizens, but it might loose some of its economic dynamism in the process and Canada might be the worse for it."
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