{"id":5019,"date":"2018-03-16T16:50:30","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T20:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=5019"},"modified":"2018-03-16T17:03:36","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T21:03:36","slug":"can-the-american-dream-be-continued-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2018\/03\/can-the-american-dream-be-continued-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the American Dream Be Continued? – II"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. has long been known as a country where if you work and study hard, then you, or at least your children, will be able to get a good education, a good job, and live a reasonably comfortable life.\u00a0 This is known as the American Dream.\u00a0 Every year especially after the end of WWII, thousands and thousands of people from all over the world have immigrated to this country (most legally, and some illegally) to seek and often achieve the American Dream.\u00a0 There are of course many reasons, e.g., the American democratic form of government and the American pioneering and entrepreneur spirit, for making the American Dream possible.\u00a0 In a January 2010 article “Can the American Dream Be Continued?<\/a>“, we discussed an often-overlooked significant contributing factor to the American Dream, i.e., the unique geographical and natural environment in which the U.S. grew during the first 200+ years of its existence.\u00a0 In this article, we revisit this issue and elaborate on the implications of not properly taken into account this contributing factor to the American Dream.
\n<\/p>\n

Review of the Unique U.S. Environment:\u00a0 <\/strong>The U.S. is really unique in terms of geographic or natural opportunities during most of its existence.\u00a0 It offered a vast country with a very small native population.\u00a0 It offered good natural resources and vast land ideal for agriculture and cattle ranging.\u00a0 Thus, there was always room to expand and enough resources to share, instead of being a zero-sum situation where one could gain only at the expense of someone else.\u00a0 The country actually welcomed more new comers to help develop the vast land.\u00a0 It was partially due to immigration to the U.S. of so many of the best and brightest from other countries that propelled the U.S. economic engine to become the richest and most powerful country in the world.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the East and the Pacific Ocean on the West, providing natural barriers from foreign aggressors.\u00a0 It is bordered on the north and the south by two relatively new countries also with a vast land of their own and a small native population.\u00a0 Until WWII, the U.S. was able to live relatively peacefully without worrying too much about the threat of foreign invasion.\u00a0 Thus, it could focus its resources and energy internally to develop the country.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the U.S. suffered relatively minor damages from WWII.\u00a0 That and the above advantages enabled it to develop into the richest and most powerful country in the world after WWII.\u00a0 Then for another 30-50 years before several other countries (e.g., first Germany and Japan, and then Korea, India and China) developed into credible economic competitors, the U.S. was able to reap great economic advantages all over the world.<\/p>\n

This is not to deny that other factors (e.g., its democratic system of government, the American pioneering and entrepreneur spirit) were also significant contributors to the success of the U.S. during the first two hundred years of its existence.\u00a0 The point we want to make is that there was almost an ideal geographical and natural environment for the U.S. during most of its existence that greatly helped it to develop into the richest and most powerful country in the world and created the foundation for the American Dream.<\/p>\n

Continuing Expanding Economy and Zero Sum Economy:\u00a0 <\/strong>When a country has vast land and natural resources to share, adding more people does not create a problem, because there is plenty to share.\u00a0 Not only that it does not introduce a problem, it actually helps the country to grow, because the U.S. can use the additional manpower and intelligence to cultivate the land, work in the factories, create new initiatives, etc.\u00a0 In its first 200 years of existence, the U.S. was basically living in a continuing expanding economy, and therefore could absorb and welcome lots of immigrants, especially when among the immigrants were the best and brightest from all over the world.\u00a0 However, starting near the end of the 20th century when the U.S. no longer has an almost unlimited amount of land and natural resources to share, it gradually changes from a “continuing expanding economy” to an almost “zero sum economy,” when giving more to one person may require a reduction for another person unless you can grow the size of the pie.\u00a0 When you couple this change with the emergence of credible economic competitors from several other countries around the world, it leads to the question of whether the American Dream can be continued.\u00a0 In order for the American Dream to continue, we must grow the size of the pie.<\/p>\n

How Can We Continue to Make the Pie Larger?<\/strong>\u00a0 Human beings have both a positive side and a negative side. [1]\u00a0 The positive side takes more into consideration what is good for the larger community, and the negative side takes more into consideration what is good for me (or me and my family).\u00a0 The political and social culture of a country can encourage or inhibit more on the positive side or the negative side.\u00a0 In a continuing expanding economy, not cultivating the positive side of human behavior does not necessarily stop the country from meeting the needs of the majority of its people, because there are always room to expand and enough resources to share. \u00a0However, in a zero sum economy, without expanding the size of the pie, it will be difficult to satisfy the needs of a continuously growing population.\u00a0 In order to grow the size of the pie, the people must work together for the good of the whole.\u00a0 Therefore, the country must cultivate and encourage actions and policies that can foster people showing more the positive side.\u00a0 Whether the American Dream can continue will depend on how the American society responds to this challenge.<\/p>\n

How Is the American Society Responding to this Challenge? \u00a0<\/strong>Although facing this great challenge of the need to increase the size of the pie, the culture and policies adopted by the American society in the last decade have continued as before. They continue to encourage and reward those who exhibit more of the negative side. We illustrate with a few examples. [2]<\/p>\n