I am into my 5th of a
6-week holiday in America, hosted by my wonderfully kind son, who is making his
career here. I have been in the US a number of times previously but it is a
wide and colourful canvas and I may not fathom accurately the wide divergence
between her people, geographically, racially or in their aspirations. As a Brit, I tend to
apply British standards, not always appropriately, and as an 81-year-old, my
world-view is unlikely to be entirely in tune with much modern thinking. So be
warned, take my views with a generous pinch of salt!
We cannot be other than impressed
by the material prosperity of America. The laden shopping malls, the spacious,
well-maintained houses, gardens and parks, the untold thousands of new electric
cars and the confident, voluble citizens speak of a society at ease with itself
and attractive to other nations. In city centres the office blocks tower above,
restaurants and cafés
galore with all the accoutrements of a dynamic mega-consumer society. Life is
great for those securely employed, healthy, reasonably educated and with the
energy to participate in The American Dream.
The fate of those who have none
of these things is more uncertain. Money makes the World go around may
be a Liza Minelli/Joel Grey song from Cabaret in 1930s Berlin but it
could be equally appropriate anywhere in 2023 USA. America could afford, but
does not have, a comprehensive Welfare State – there is piecemeal provision for
the poor and needy but many slip between the cracks, often rural whites, blacks
and Latinos.
Minelli and Grey
cynically make money go around
The feeling against the welfare
state in the USA is long-established and quite definitively ideological. Pre-
and Post-war Europe embraced state welfarism and the power and size of their
central governments grew substantially. But the cost also grew substantially,
and governments like the UK’s were seen to struggle under the burden – the
American response was to stay clear and rely on private insurance provision and
only reluctantly consent to some rudimentary Federal commitment. Vested
interests, in the shape of a highly prosperous medical profession, Big Pharma,
huge private pension funds, vast insurance combines, have grown up and hardly
any US legislators dare to defy them and insist they serve participants in the
gig economy and the underclass too. The universe these interests do serve are
what we Brits call “the prosperous middle classes”, a lucrative market,
unlikely to be disturbed.
Yet, for all its inequities, the
US economy is a huge global success story. At $26.8 trillion, it accounts by
itself for about 25% of world GDP and only China at $19.3 tr. comes anywhere
near, and former stars Japan $4.4 tr, Germany $4.3 tr., India $3.7tr., UK
$3.1tr.and France $2.9tr lag well behind. The per capita lead is equally
impressive with :
USA $80,000 per capita
Canada $52,000
Germany $51,000
UK $46,000
France $44,000
Japan $35,000
China $13,000
India $2,000
States with huge populations are
held back by the sheer weight of mouths to feed and people to employ, with the
notable exception of the USA!
It would be neat if we could
ascribe America’s good fortune to its good government but the facts tell us
otherwise. Despite a historically admired Constitution and a delicate framework
respecting Federal and States rights, America is a sadly polarised nation.
Finding any kind of consensus between the warring factions and interest groups
is a Herculean Labour, only resolvable with, effectively, bribes and crude “pork
barrel” corruption. With a politicised judiciary, partisan causes can get
plenty leverage and notions of cross-party cooperation get scant support.
Relations between Democrat and Republican at the Federal level are poisonous,
there is hardly even an agreed agenda and coherent democratic debate is notably
obstructed. Sometimes a little wisdom shines through, but we have to go back to
January 1961 to admire Eisenhower’s farewell presidential address when he
warned the nation: “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted
influence by the military-industrial complex”- still highly relevant, as
the world teeters regularly on the edge of war. In our age of AI, pandemic and
huge scientific progress, Ike’s other warning was equally prophetic: “We should
be alert to the danger that public policy could become the captive of a
scientific-technological elite”.
We in the West are moving on from
our old religions and our traditional deference. We are in danger of becoming
money-worshippers, basically knowing in Oscar Wilde’s words the price of
everything and the value of nothing. A sad fate for the civilised!
Americans are a highly articulate
people and much good flows when people talk together in a civil fashion.
Divisions can be overcome, policies can be agreed and the stridently bitter
neutralised. It is a cliché to say there is strength in unity and happiness in
working in a common cause – but I will say it!
America naturally has the
problems of all developed nations and yet the world should pay tribute to its
great virtues and give thanks for its unremitting historic and contemporary
generosity!
SMD
18.8.23
Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023
