June 02, 2008

THE UNITED STATES

Just a quick post today as I am afraid my day was fairly routine. I thought about extracting the smallest minutiae of the day's happenings to string something together, but it would have been a resounding failure. (Although the way most of my posts turn out doing so would have been par for the course.)

Anyway, what I wanted to write about today is a response to the fears regarding the future of the United States. With the economies of the so-called BRICK countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and S. Korea) surging ahead, there exists never-ending speculation regarding a global shift of power. I don't want to turn this into another tit-for-tat debate on which countries "have what it takes over the long-term" because that only fuels animosity - I doubt there is a government in the world that thinks their long-term strategy is flawed. However, it is ridiculous to think that the waning power of the dollar or President Bush's lack of popularity signal a downward trend for the United States.

Simply put, the country was not built by such temporal issues; in one year there will be a new president, and in the next economic cycle the dollar will likely recover. However, the true engine that drives the country cannot be measured, tabulated, or polled, and so no one pays it any mind. What is this 'engine' that I am referring to? It is the United States' unparalleled capacity to empower its citizens.

I have no idea what my friends or I will go on to do with the rest of our lives, but I do know that they are ambitious, well-educated, and are not afraid to dream big. No matter what happens in the world - be it changing prices at the pump, a surge in global conflicts, or even natural disasters - the core potential remains within every citizen. Many people criticize this "core potential" because it manifests itself in a populace who are seen as "competitive, ambitious, and indulgent" individuals. However, each of those traits ensure that the United States populace will not roll over when the going gets tough. In fact, I belief the opposite holds true: Americans show their true colors when the chips are stacked against them. History backs me up in such a claim, but more importantly than the past is that the future will soon back up my words.

(In fairness, I believe many countries share such attributes. Ambition, competition, and indulgence are not American inventions, but I cannot think of anywhere else on the planet where they thrive so much.)