by Tom Kando
I just read the book by that title, written by the Dutchman Charles Groenhuijsen (2015).
The premise of the book is similar to that of Rick Nieman’s What we Can Learn from America: An Optimistic Story about the Promised Land (2015), which we reviewed a few months ago (see What we Can Learn from America). While it provides a detailed critique of most of America’s many flaws, its basic theme is that the country is on the road to progress, and that it enjoys many advantages over Europe. In other words, it is one more optimistic and sympathetic analysis of the USA coming from the Netherlands. Interesting.
In this article, I will summarize Groenhuijsen’s book, and conclude that (1) the author is overly optimistic and that (2) his prognosis might have been more negative if he had written the book AFTER Donald Trump’s election rather than just a few months before.
First, what is good about America, according to Groenhuijsen?
For one thing, Americans are becoming more liberal in their lifestyle. Gay marriage is now the law of the land, more and more jurisdictions are legalizing recreational marijuana, the country is becoming more secular; church attendance is declining, etc.
With Obamacare, America finally joins the rest of the civilized world in providing (near-) universal health insurance.
America’s economy is vibrant and incredibly innovative. Silicon Valley (Google, Apple, Facebook) and other giants such as Starbucks and Uber dominate the world.
Immigration is vigorous; America remains the world’s primary destination for emigrants.
But what about the bad news?
America’s income and wealth inequality has grown to a shameful level. The country’s poverty and homelessness are by far the worst of the industrialized world.
All the same, the government refuses to provide an adequate safety net for the working class, be it unemployment compensation, sick leave, parental leave, or paid vacation.
Thus, Americans work much harder and longer hours than the rest of the developed world, and they enjoy lower quality of life.
Criminal violence remains far higher than in comparable countries. This is due to the extremely high rate of gun ownership - twenty-five times greater than in the Netherlands and most of Western Europe.
At the same time, the criminal justice system dispenses little justice and no rehabilitation. America has the largest prison population on earth. Its police force murders several thousand citizens each year, many of them defenseless, half of them black.
The country’s priorities are out of whack. The US spends as much on its armed forces as all other countries combined. Donald Trump gave a recent speech on the new aircraft carrier Gerald Ford. This ship’s unit cost was $13 billion, and its program cost was $36 billion. This is the equivalent of Arizona’s annual budget, and more than the budget of the University of California.
Another example: It costs the taxpayer $30 million per month to secure the Trump Tower in New York. That is more than the budget of the California State University in Sacramento, with its 30,000 students. But we can’t afford to fix our roads and our schools, provide health insurance and an adequate safety net for the entire population.
Our political system is undemocratic: Due to the electoral college and the bi-cameral system, we do not have one-man-one vote. Politicians are often elected by minorities, not majorities.
Race relations: Judging from rates of inter-marriage, America’s most prominent racial divide - black vs. white - seems to be lessening, even though the total percentage of black-white marriages is still under 10% (Interracial Marriage). However, it is not clear that the country is any more “post-racial” today than it was in the 1960s. The “Black Lives Matter” movement attests to this, as does the enormous discrepancy between black and white income and wealth. African-Americans’ average net worth is one tenth (!) of that of whites. Groenhuijsen’s analysis of this problem is the book’s only major error: In Chapter 3.3 and again at the end, the author puts far too much emphasis on blacks’ “self-destructive” behavior, as contributing to black disadvantage. He quotes people like Bill Cosby, who have often talked about peer pressure among black youth that derides scholastic achievement and studiousness as “acting white.”
He also brings back Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s half-century old indictment of the single-headed “matriarchal” black family as a root cause of black crime and poverty (see The Moynihan Report). However, sociologists have shown (for example Lee Rainwater) that blaming the female-headed family for black delinquency is a flawed argument. There is no scientific evidence that the traditional father-mother bourgeois family is the only model that guarantees proper socialization. In Scandinavia, for example, the two-headed bourgeois family has long ceased to be the norm, yet the rates of delinquency there are minimal. There are many ways to skin a cat - and to raise children. By focusing on blacks’ alleged self-inflicted shortcomings, Groenhuijsen here is blaming the victim. American racism is institutional and attitudinal. Groenhuijsen is right in pointing out that the younger generation - the millennials - seems to do better in this regard.
The most worrisome item on the negative side of the ledger is Donald Trump’s unforeseen election. With the prospect of Obamacare’s repeal, a crackdown on immigrants and a host of other retrograde measures, all bets about American progress are now off. Statements by the author such as “obamacare is here to stay” (p. 353) remain to be seen.
Therefore, I was NOT left with optimism after reading this book. A couple of years ago, a Dutch friend (or maybe a frenemy) of mine said to me: “What an awful country you live in!” This sort of narrow-minded anti-Americanism by smug European intellectuals used to drive me up the wall. But now? Was he right?
Groenhuijsen even provides statistics to support my frenemy: Surveys show that the US ranks rather low on happiness scales. People such as the Danes, the Dutch, the Swiss and other Europeans rank much higher.
So here is my take:
Yes, there are many deplorable conditions in this country. Many Americans are unhappy, angry and nihilistic. Many social and economic conditions are bad. Furthermore, things are getting worse, not better. But am I just engaging in one more anti-American diatribe, another cheap shot from European intellectuals (Groenhuijsen and Kando)?
I hope not. I am stuck here. I made my bed and I have to lie in it. The one intangible good which attracted me to America, and which hasn’t disappointed me yet: A sort of general FREEDOM which comes with this country’s unique culture, diversity and history. I don’t mean the legal and political freedom of which there is more in places like Holland, with its extremely liberal policies on drugs, euthanasia, sex and just about everything else. I am talking about the fact that in America, you are free to act, look and BE whatever you wish. You are less likely to be harassed, criticized, messed with. American culture is nonchalantly tolerant. It is also more SPONTANEOUS - both for good and for bad. Yes, there is much conflict and violence, but there is also a great deal of Good Samaritanism.
America remains a vast project. Now, more than ever, it requires a lot of work. We had eight good years under Obama. We can get back on track. There is hope. America is not a lost cause. And the American project is important not only for America, but for the whole world.
Two of America’s most dangerous weaknesses are:
1. A kind of “international ignorance.” Americans think that the world stops at the country’s borders. This ignorance in a rapidly shrinking and globalized world will lead to many errors - economic, political and military.
2. (This is one of Groenhuijsen’s main points): Americans don’t trust “government:” They deny the possibility of a benevolent and problem-solving government. Thus, the country’s communal, national problems are unlikely to ever be tackled collectively and efficiently. It was not always so. During the New Deal, the Johnson presidency and at other times, there was no such inordinate distrust of government. It has spread as a result of relentless propaganda emanating from the corporate world. A strong anti-government corporate culture exists elsewhere too, but in the US it has come to dominate legislatures and much of public opinion.
It is nonsense to grandiloquently call America the “most powerful and most modern country in the world” (e.g. p. 297). This is tired, overused and incorrect. America happens to be BIG. But “Big” is not synonymous with “Best.” There are other big countries - Brazil, Russia, India - and they are a mess. China is also very big, but it is not very nice.
Perhaps the most optimistic and probably true thing Groenhuijsen writes, is that no single individual, no President, no Donald Trump, has the power to turn the clock back (pp. 354-5); that no matter what, America will remain in the 21st century. Trends such as secularization are irreversible. In other words, even Trump won't be able to ruin things. Let’s chill, and get to work to make sure of that!
© Tom Kando 2017;All Rights Reserved
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6 comments:
Tom, I like your optimism!
And your continuing good writing!
Tom always enlightens!
I just read the post and really enjoyed it
The blog post, and book, makes good points, but also a couple of not so good ones I think. Some counterpoints and thoughts.
You just have to glimpse at the state of the EU, and the individual countries, to see what a gigantic mess they are in. And even more dangerous; many are in a state of incredible denial, especially the smug Euro-intellectuals. Most of the people I know, in several European countries, are not happy at all.
The US spends about 3.3% of GDP on their military. That is a bit above the world average (which I think is about 2.5%). The US just has an enormous GDP, the highest in the world, which obviously makes a small percentage of that a large amount in absolute terms. (healthcare and social security are by far the largest federal budgets, together account for half of government spending)
The US does have high violent crime rates, but I don’t think the cause is gun ownership. Canada also has high gun ownership (also one of the highest in the world), a Canadian can buy pretty much any gun an American can buy, yet the violent crime rates are much lower. Something else is going on, and focusing on the guns means not focusing on finding the real problem, and ultimately not solving it.
The US political system, as a whole, is much more democratic than that of many other countries.
Americans rightly distrust government. Saying that we should be open to the possibility of a big benevolent government is like saying we should be open to benevolent big oil.
It is not time for people to wake up and finally see that a benevolent paternalistic/maternalistic government is possible. It is time to wake up, and listen to the extremely solid arguments of the great classical liberal philosophers (and economists), and the centuries of empirical evidence to realize that complete trust in a big benevolent paternalistic/maternalistic government is a very dangerous route to take. Proven again, and again, and again, and again.
Socialism, and socialist leaning systems do not work. The amount of evidence (and theory) is just so overwhelmingly on the side of self-organization, small government, capitalism etc. that I don’t even understand why this is still a debate in 2017.
Have you looked at latest experiment; Venezuela? Many of the current problems in the US are caused precisely because of government, because the government has become too powerful and too big, and thereby giving incentives to people of low moral standards to try and corrupt and infiltrate it.
Pretty much everyone I know that immigrated from a western European country to the US or Canada, will agree with many of the points in your blog, yet none of them want to go back to Europe, and they all talk about the freedom they have here, and how people here are more economically, politically and socially active, how there is a lot more choice and diversity. Have you never asked yourself why? Why is the EU not working?
The answer: central planning and control, one-size-fits-all solutions, huge bureaucracy, over regulation, busy-bodying people. And don’t under estimate the psychological effect of more government power and responsibility. The more responsibility the government takes, the less the people take. The more laws and regulation you have, the more frivolous it gets, the less moral value such laws and regulation have. The more “nanny” a state behaves, the more infantile its inhabitants behave.
I’d much rather live in a society that puts emphasis on individualism and self reliance and self responsibility. And there are pretty solid arguments to be made why (counter-intuitively) individualism is better, also for the collective, than collectivism.
Apple rapidly changed to more environmental friendly manufacturing when a study showed how much they polluted, they rapidly changed the way they operate their Chinese factories when a news story showed how poorly the workers were treated. Apple did this, because if they lose support in the market, they have nowhere to go, despite being the world’s most valuable company.
I thank Terry, Carol Anita and Dave for their support.
As to J.J.:
Thank you for your elaborate comment. I had to cut it, because Google limits comments to 4096 characters. Here is my reply:
1. Europe is not a gigantic mess. It has lived in peace and prosperity for three quarters of a century, thanks to unification.
The last 72 years have been the best period Europe has EVER enjoyed, in its entire history, thanks to unification. Europe is working fine.
2. The US spends too much on the military, and it spends it the wrong way - on $13 billion and $20 billion dinosaurs (nuclear aircraft carriers and stealth bombers) that are useless in asymmetric warfare. America has not won a war since World War Two.
3. Guns: There are always special cases/circumstances that can be invoked to argue that a high murder rate is not caused by a high rate of gun ownership (Canada, Switzerland, Israel, etc.) But the bottom line is simple and inescapable: The more fire arms there are, the more people will die from firearms.
4. Yes, the US is more democratic than many other countries, and it is also less democratic than many.
5. You and many Americans may not put your trust in, and believe in the possibility of a benevolent government. But that is just one passing historical phase. Today, you pray at the altar of Adam Smith, as if he were sacrosanct. This too, shall pass. Or is Free Market Economics the end of history, humanity’s final wisdom?
History is endless CHANGE. Societies progress. Once there was slavery, then feudalism and serfdom, now we have capitalism. Nothing is forever. Social Democracy is a step forward. Soviet Communism was a terrible experiment and it failed. This does not mean that Socialism has failed. I am a socialist the same way as Bernie Sanders, Francois Hollande, the British Labour Party, the German Social Democrats and all the social-democrats who so often govern in much of Western Europe and other affluent, just and prosperous societies around the world.
6. Empirical evidence? The model for socialist government is Scandinavia, not Venezuela.
7. We need to raise taxes. Ever since Kennedy, every single candidate has campaigned by promising to “cut taxes.” What I want is a brave candidate who promises to RAISE taxes. Only that way can we ever hope to fund the dire needs of our society - infra-structure, education, safety net for the poor, social legislation, public health, and NOT grow the deficit to the bankruptcy point.
Hear hear Tom.
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