What ‘American society’ means

This country has been on the move since it was first founded — literally. In 1790, the year of the first census, the mean population center of the U.S. was in eastern Maryland. In other words, half of the country lived to the north and east of that point, and half of the country lived to the south and west. As of 2010, the mean population center is in central Missouri. We’ve been forever on the move.

Americans are a restless people. This is why the country built hundreds of thousands of miles of railroad tracks in the 19th century. It is why virtually every person who could afford one began buying cars in the early 20th century as soon as they became available. It’s why we built hundreds of thousands of miles of hardtop roads. We get around.

This vision is embedded in our national founding. The Southern planters who supported the Revolution may have had a static view of culture, economics, and society, but it was a different story in the North. The Sons of Liberty were middle-class Boston merchants looking to improve their lots in life. And all the major population centers in the early days of the founding — Philadelphia, New York, and Boston — were centers of vibrant economic activity. In the long run, the Southern aristocracy lost to the Northern capitalists, as commerce and industry became the dominant modes of economic life.

That set American society on a course from which it has only ever superficially deviated, never abandoned. That’s because this country is more than a market economy; it is a market society. Interaction, socialization, and chance-taking are in our genes. Contrary to those who claim this rugged individualism is an excuse for selfishness and isolation, it in fact breeds the opposite: an intense interdependence. For three months, we’ve had a debate over “essential workers” and “essential jobs.” What falls into that category changes by the state, but even governors don’t seem to be fully aware of what’s covered under “essential.” That confusion is arguably by design: In our system, there is no such thing as an “inessential worker.”

The entire structure of our society mimics our national state of mind. The creative destruction of the market economy is justified entirely by the fact that it makes most of us more prosperous over time, which, in turn, implies that this is what, deep down, we really want. We could, in theory, idle our days away with a middling, comfortable form of socialism, but for the overwhelming majority of Americans, that just seems like a horrifying prospect.

And the nature of this economy rebels against the assumptions built into the current lockdown. The “market revolution” that began in the early 19th century upended the old way of American life, of mainly small farmers who lived independent of each other. Instead, the U.S. diversified its economy, with commerce and industry proliferating across the country, underwritten by a modern system of finance. This has been the key to our prosperity — each of us doing a little bit, through the mechanisms of the market, to contribute to the welfare of others. When it works, it is a virtuous cycle. I get wealthier, so you get wealthier, so I get wealthier, etc.

In the long run, the notion of “essential industries” is completely nonsensical. Everybody is connected to everybody else in the United States, which means that locking down certain sectors will eventually end up turning the virtuous cycle of American capitalism into a vicious one. Shut down the restaurants, and they begin to default on their loans. That will put pressure on the banks, which, in turn, will put increased strains on access to credit for other businesses, which will then be forced to furlough their employees, and so on. As businesses close their doors, the commercial real estate market will be oversupplied, property values will decrease, and local governments will struggle to maintain essential services. And so on and so on and so on.

For a short period of time, the government can shut down sectors of the economy, and rely on federal stimulus and easy access to credit from the Federal Reserve, to float people along. But sooner or later, these sectors of the economy are going to collapse, which will bring others down in turn.

We have seen this story play out many times in American history. The first major financial panic in the U.S. was back in 1792, in New York City. Overeager investors drove up the price of government debt far beyond its actual value, and then, the market collapsed. But the country did not fall into a recession because the economy was so poorly integrated at that point that it hardly made a ripple outside of Manhattan. Starting in 1819, economic panics have washed across the country every few years, often starting in particular industries, then spreading across the entire nation. That’s how integration works.

That is exactly what we are going to see if this shutdown lasts much longer. You cannot just destroy the restaurants, hotels, airlines, and theaters without expecting everything else to fall apart in due course. Every industry, commercial pursuit, and economic activity in the United States depends on every other industry, commercial pursuit, and economic activity. Our fates are tied not by common religion, political beliefs, or ethnicity, but by economics. The only way I get to do new and interesting things is if you get to do new and interesting things. And that is not happening right now.

It is a testament to the public spiritedness of the U.S. that the country has endured a six-week shutdown. But this has to be brought to an end soon. The very essence of this country can be defined in a single word — more. And more cannot be achieved when we are all sitting at home watching Netflix. We need to get back to work because that is who we are, and who we have always been.

Jay Cost is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Grove City College.