I know we're in the midst of an extended presidential campaign, which means talking about how bad things are so we can choose the candidate who can best fix all our terrible problems. But can we pause occasionally to remember that we live in the most advanced country in the history of the world, with unlimited opportunities and lives that get better and better all the time?
"American capitalism is derided for its superficial banality, yet it has unleashed profound, convulsive social change," he writes. "Condemned as mindless materialism, it has burst loose a flood tide of spiritual yearning. The civil rights movement and the sexual revolution, environmentalism and feminism, the fitness and health-care boom and the opening of the gay closet, the withering of censorship and the rise of a 'creative class' of 'knowledge workers' -- all are the progeny of widespread prosperity."
Relative freedom and the astounding prosperity it yielded have created one of the most humane societies in history -- the opposite of what the opponents of economic freedom predicted.
OK, back to your whining.
Comments
Don't try to tell that to the party of the half empty glass, the Democrats, after all these are the WORST of times ever, and if you don't believe that, well you are just stupid. Just ask one, life has NEVER been more awful.
Personally I would prefer a completely full glass, not a half full one ;-)
Todays economy might be a 1/8 full glass however, as only the top 2% seem to be benefitting from it.
Dow dropped 410 points yesterday on news of the expanding housing bubble burst and the expansion of the subprime meltdown in the prime markets
The Dow of course being some of the ONLY good economic news lately, but of course we can debate the accuracy of the Dow as an economic indicator
The so called knowledge based economy has yet to materialize, another broken promise from the open border pro global camp, in fact many of these sop called knowledge and tech jobs are being outsourced at faster rates than the grunt labor jobs they were supposed to replace.
See what I mean? (AJ) I'm not in the top 2% and nor are most of my contemporaries, and I don't know any of us "middle classers" heading for the financial doom precipice.
Business is up this year from last, last year it was up from 2005. Using one day ups and downs and short sighted "freak me out" headlines to base your opinions on our economic health is ridiculous.
A result of our "drive thru mentality" is the expectation all things must change daily and therefore I must adjust accordingly. Newsflash....those who look only at small pictures and short term results will always get small results.
A perfect example is when the dow goes down (obviously a lot less often than it goes up) all headlines read "plunge". When it goes up, one little blurb in the financial section says "edged up". If you are told every single day that your life sucks, odds are pretty good it will manifest itself and your life will begin to suck.
Gloom and doom sells.
Whatever,- I am afraid that it is you Mr Zank that is only listening to the headlines and the "happy talk" to form your opinions of the economy. If you dig a little deeper and not base all of your sources on the mainstream media, right wing talk radio or Fox you will find all is not well in the US economic picture. Irrational exhuberence and ignoring the warning signs drove many "off the ledge" if you will in 1929 - I am sure they had wished they had opened their eyes and mind to the warnings signs back then too.
And there is a BIG difference between what you call doom and gloom and what I call being informed and realistic.
Sounds more like your life just sucks, because the numbers don't reflect you pessimism. 5 years of uninterrupted growth in the economy(2.9% avg), unemployment at 4.5%, and real after tax per-capita personal income is up 9.9 % since 2001.
Damn, I sure hope things pick up.
Zank, there is a big disparity between per-capita numbers and real life. After all, while [(50+50)/2]=50, so does [(98+2)/2]=50.