American Exceptionalism
Here’s a conversation that some may find interesting:
Friend A: One of the greatest threats to America is the fact that our school system is not teaching the next generation morals, American exceptionalism, free enterprise, the constitution, the dangers of socialism, or the value of hard work.
Friend B: I don’t understand what ‘American exceptionalism’ is… please explain….. 🙂
Craig: Let me jump in here. American exceptionalism is the concept that America is unique among the 200+ sovereign nation states on Earth. “He (God) smiles on our endeavors,” or, in Latin: Annuit coeptis (see your one-dollar bill). It means that whatever the United States does is morally acceptable, if not praise-worthy.
Throughout history, it’s been used to justify slavery, the slaughter of the Native Americans, Jim Crow laws, the internment of the Japanese, the use of atomic weapons, the support of ruthless tyrants, and the waging of aggressive wars. Now it’s used to justify our present-day atrocities, whether they be social (kicking people off healthcare and giving tax cuts to billionaires while 21% of our children live in poverty), environmental (deregulating the use of toxic chemical and denying climate science), or military (provoking wars, supporting genocide, defiance of international law, and the flouting of UN resolutions).
The support of Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territories is a great example. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 passed in a 14–0 vote by members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). The resolution states that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity”. It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. This violation of international law is of no concern whatsoever to the United States, simply because of good ol’ American exceptionalism.
You may ask why God has chosen to smile on our endeavors, and not those of France or Belarus or Canada or Paraguay. Perhaps, as some say, “He works in mysterious ways.” It’s quite a mystery; I’ll give you that.
Craig,
You raise an interesting statistic, ” 21% of all children United States live in poverty.
I assume you citing a National Center for Children in Poverty(NCCP) publication from 2016?
That report was based on the assumption that 43% of children live in low-income families. The reports used by the study were assembled between 2011 and 2015. They used projections assuming unemployment and incomes would continue to decrease with worsening economic conditions.
The assumptions were wrong, by 2019 the Trump administration has ensured massive growth in both incomes and employment for working class Americans. (Partly as a result of those tax cuts).
I realize you lack both the resources and inclination to conduct in-depth investigation into the methodology behind these “studies”, but are you aware that in some studies, “poverty” can be a child not owning a lap-top computer or note-book?
It’s a sad fact that if you search hard enough you can find some ‘study’ to confirm almost any position, especially if your not to fussy about it being up-to-date !
Here are 32.4 million places to go for the answer. https://www.google.com/search?q=what+percentage+of+american+children+live+in+poverty&ei=KDnSXMK8Ae2U0PEPvvMi&start=10&sa=N&ved=0ahUKEwjC8IuF7IriAhVtCjQIHb65CAAQ8tMDCLIB&biw=1440&bih=789. It appears that it could be as low as 17%. Is that more acceptable?
In 2016, the child poverty rate was 18%, in 2017 – before any changes were made to either the budget or the tax code – the child poverty rate had dropped to 17.5%.
We do not yet have information on 2018, which would technically be the first year that any of the efforts of the Trump administration could plausibly be credited… though it’s almost certain that the child poverty rate has continued to drop over the past two years, likely at a near-constant rate (as was seen between 2011 and 2017).
I’m not sure that “American exceptionalism” would be the thing that is to blame for our continuing protection of Israel’s atrocities. I would assume that to be more of a twisted combination of racism, anti-Muslim sentiment, and some bizarre right-wing interpretation of The Book of Revelations.
In my humble opinion… the greatest harm that could truly be credited to American exceptionalism is truly sloppy/lazy economics and political propaganda. The majority of the populated portion of this country is temperate, requiring far less energy to provide a livable and productive society. We have a highly educated populace, despite the fact that future generations are facing some degradation in that regard, and we have a low population density, with some rather exceptional reserves of fossil energy, metal ores, and good agricultural land.
In short – America has a greater RESOURCE PER CAPITA than almost any other country on Earth, while requiring far less energy per capita to make a habitable and productive society. It’s only natural that such a country would prosper, and do so at a rate that out-stripped other countries. Yet we claim that it is somehow a result of “better economics policy” (bullshit), or “better health policy” (complete bullshit), or “Freedom” (nonsense)… or whatever.
It’s just because this land was largely unspoiled while Europe was denuded and exploited for centuries, and we came here – wiped out and drove out the natives, enslaved less technologically developed nations in Africa and brought them here as low-cost labor, and then used our education and low-cost labor to rapidly and successfully exploit the tremendous resources provided. It’s economics, not exceptionalism. We continued to lean on our advantages for centuries – again, basic economics. If we learned and taught that, people would respect the resource difference between a highly educated and healthy adult verses an uneducated or poorly educated and/or unhealthy adult. The former is a resource, the latter is a burden. They would respect how sound and well-designed infrastructure serves as a multiplier for resource exploitation, and poorly designed infrastructure serves to reduce the ability to utilize resources… Efficiency reduces burden, inefficiency increases it.
A society improves, and continues to improve, as it maximizes its resource/burden. Teach THAT… not some fairy tale about how – despite everything ever written in the religion that you claim – God somehow loves this one random country and hates the rest… so we have a strong society because of FREEDOM (?)… and the rest is MAGIC.
Craig,
(Sigh) I’m afraid I’m right, you really do hate performing any meaningful research, don’t you?
I’m afraid a vague reference to “Google” sites, isn’t actually research !
Many of these sites only repeat each other’s information, giving a false appearance of authenticity. Most of the more extreme claims don’t bear scrutiny, or are published by advocacy groups or charities seeking donations.
This is not to say such organizations are inherently dishonest, but like all organizations that employ professional publicists and PR/advertising folk, their methods are bound to lack objectivity.
I shall use just two example to explain why you should be more careful when quoting “evidence”, and why it pays to check the methodology, not just quote a sensational and convenient headline.
1) Most of these statistics were compiled using the measure of “child Poverty” as being a child in a household with less than $48.668 and extreme poverty at $29,600 .
That figure makes no allowance for regional differences or family circumstances. Also no consideration is allowed for participants in the “cash in hand” economy.
A single parent family living in a low cost region paying as little as $40 per week for assisted housing, may be considerably better off than a two-parent family, living in a high cost area with a combined income of $100,000 pa, but paying $60,000 pa in mortgage, car expenses etc.
2) “Child poverty” statistics also include children of illegal migrant immigrant families.
Naturally, these figures are every difficult to ascertain with any degree of accuracy Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the research source for most of “google” articles and reports “reports” attributes approximately 18 million such children.
The oft quoted “report” attributes higher rates of poverty due to unique cultural and systemic barriers to obtaining economic security.
In addition to these two examples, the nature of “poverty’ itself is very subjective.
“Reports” and “studies’ tend to be influenced by the political or ideological objectives of the authors.
As D’Israeli wittily observed, ” There are three kind’s of lies. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics !”
Many families cited in these studies as living in poverty, are not poor in the ordinary sense or as understood by most Americans.
Impoverished families often have household appliances,adequate food, shelter and a higher standard of living than middle class families several decades ago.
Therefore, methodology involving measuring poverty by calculating income inequality and not actual material deprivation, overstates the extent of poverty in the United States.
The US experienced the greatest growth in poverty since the great depression during the Obama administration. Not all the factors associated with the growth of US poverty can be laid at the feet of the Federal administration during that period. The Obama administration inherited many unforeseeable economic problems.
By the advent of the Trump administration, the problems had become better known and the solutions were more obvious.
The new administration implemented policies designed to counter the negative aspect of globalization, increase US competitiveness, restore US employment and industry, while avoiding costly military adventures.
The Trump administration has been astonishingly successful in realizing these goals. Although frustrated in reducing illegal migration to a minimum, a transformation is taking place in the US economy.