In my relatively short life I remember a similar sentiment in the late 80s/early 90s as Japan was rising rapidly. My homeroom teacher in high school used to tell us that Japanese students attended more days of school, studied harder, and their government spent way more on education and much less on defense than the US did. This was post-Cold War and if we didn’t have a war to fight, we needed some other reason to become stronger, and we did this by building up fears of a dominant Japan. I am sure there were similar cases made during the Cold War about how USSR students and society were better educated, better trained, and that their gov’t was better prepared financially and militarily, etc.
The point here is that yes, I feel we are not as strong as we should be. With that said, it will always behoove us to work hard and smart, live within our means, save, and invest wisely. In my opinion we have failed on most if not all of the above accounts recently.
What’s more, I feel that America has turned into the land of “poor me” rather than “strong me”. Just watch some of the old movies (pre-1950s or so) and you will see what I mean. People back then that had a cold, addiction, disease, or some other deficiency were loathe to disclose it and were too proud (almost to a fault) to admit so and ask for help. Society expected individuals to do their best to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. Asking for government handouts was a sign of weakness and akin to throwing in the towel in a sense.
Today, conversely, people are encouraged and even given an incentive to not try to be as strong or fit as they can be. They are rewarded more for taking themselves out of the game and hanging on the sidelines for whatever reason(s). This is not to say that there is not a need for gov’t assistance. It’s just to show that when gov’t assistance is encouraged and incentivized, generations of citizens are raised to become dependent on it. Why go to work or try to start a small business for yourself when you can kick back and accept a gov’t handout every month? Oh, and if you still want to do/earn more than the average person, the gov’t will tax you progressively higher than the rest. Where’s the incentive to excel here?
China has become the new Japan…
America has become the new Europe.
We need to reconsider what we think the role of government ought to be in our lives.
