Please keep saying America is great. Because it is.
I say this in response to the New York Times‘ Nayeema Raza and Taige Jensen’s video request to the alternate, “Please stop telling me America is great.” The problems begin with the authors’ assessment of the U.S. poverty rate, which is lower than it might be because so many of the world’s poor seek to make their homes here, knowing that economic opportunity awaits them.
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Referencing the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Raza and Jensen offer a graphic which says the U.S. has the “highest poverty rate.” One problem? The OECD’s own statistics show America does not have the highest poverty rate of member nations. Oops. But there’s another issue here: The OECD applies a relative poverty measurement to reach its conclusions. It relies on assessments of equality of wealth; the relative poverty rate prejudices nations such as America that have a lot of wealthy residents.
I also reject Raza and Jensen’s argument on a personal experience level. Travel to any Western European social democracy such as Britain, France, or Scandinavia, and you will see middle-class families with far less access to the affordable pursuit of happiness than their American counterparts. Travel to poor communities such as the Parisian banlieues or London’s council estates and you will see American-style cultures of poverty alongside comparatively greater barriers to social mobility.
From this point, we find ourselves facing standard-fare leftism, which is not an accurate measure of America’s good qualities. The video decries what conservatives actually celebrate: our high civilian gun ownership rates. It assails more than “a little” patriotism as dangerous jingoism. It complains that “citizens don’t trust uniformed officers” (85% of Americans disagree, and with good reason). Raza and Jensen lament that when “health, education and safety are increasingly privatized or driven by privilege, the truth is how great America is really depends on how rich you are.” This might be red meat to the bluest, most socialist Democrats. But it has little grounding in reality.
There’s also Raza and Jensen’s reliance on The Economist‘s Intelligence Unit to suggest that America is a “flawed democracy.” This is truly absurd. Yes, the U.S. is a flawed democracy. So is every other democracy. But to adopt The Economist‘s assessment is to assert that Britain’s civil liberties situation, with its authoritarian defamation laws, politicians who sign spy agency warrants, and cameras on every street corner, is better than our own. Any reasonable person’s response to that has to be: Give me a break.
To be fair, the authors do a little bit better on healthcare and education. They rightly note that we spend a lot on healthcare but have poor outcomes at a population-cost relative level. They are also right that our STEM skills remain worse than they should be. But Raza and Jensen ignore America’s dominance of higher education and global research, our unparalleled medical and technology innovation, and the problems afflicting socialized medical systems.
We also lead the world in Nobel laureates. It isn’t close. And a large number of them were foreign-born and choose to live here. Perhaps, New York Times journalists, they know better than to trust your manipulation of statistics.
America is not, as the authors say, “just OK.” It is the most vibrant democracy, the greatest place to live, the most likely nation to improve, and the most enduring and instrumental source of human freedom on Earth. In other words, it is great.
