The contest between the American and European economic and social systems is on once again. A year ago, America seemed condemned to death. Today, it’s the euro zone that is suffocating. One could speak for a long time about the influence of the people’s spirit as a backdrop on such developments. To examine the American spirit, I buried myself in large portal Internet sites like yahoo.com, cnn.com, cnbc.com but also in the personal ads in the New York Review of Books.
This slightly disparate selection nevertheless reveals the people’s deepest desires, and because they are in writing, they lend themselves to a certain amount of reflection. It’s hardly surprising that these desires are money, a job, a house and love. But Americans are explicit on this subject. They do not beat around the bush. This could determine the contest in question.
These pages are full of useful tips: the best cities to live in, the regions where the houses have become the least expensive, the 10 best ways to find a job, the expressions to avoid when introducing oneself, how to recreate one’s portfolio if it was hit by the crisis, the 10 best investments of the next five years, how to take advantage of tax exemptions, what things to do in order to accumulate a fortune for retirement, investing like Warren Buffett. And so on.
These recommendations are also found in European publications and on Internet sites. But on the American sites, the density and especially the attitude — of optimism in the face of any ordeal — are extraordinary. There is no place for failure nor excuses that put the blame on “society.” And if one gets thrown out by the wheel of fortune, there are five, seven, 10 tips for re-entering the game.
For love, it is true that the ads appearing in the New York Review of Books are a bit of a special selection. It is the organ of the “glitterati” of the East Coast, very intellectual, very psychoanalytic.
The mental, financial and intellectual exhibitionism of these ads is almost embarrassing for a nice Swiss (German) man but very revealing. I’ll translate a gem: “Big heart, very respectful, passionate, extremely friendly, great team spirit with a high quotient of fun. Have never encountered a problem without tackling it. I live large, courageously, but I love to slow down. Slender, sensual, beautiful.”
Wow! Some also indicate the number of years spent in psychoanalysis. There is no shortage of ads mentioning a comfortable existence without worry for the future. One might wonder why such extraordinary people should have recourse to personal ads. But a familiarity with these environments tells me that it is part of a game — one ventures everywhere, always, by all means.
Another anecdote. After the election of Barack Obama, a black father was cited by one of these Internet sites as saying, “I am going home right now to tell my 13-year-old kid that he no longer has any excuse not to succeed.” The most revealing fact is not even the intention of this concerned father but Yahoo’s choice to find it worthy of publication.
Taken together, repeated day after day, appearing in all media, popular and intellectual, these accounts go beyond anecdote. They provide a coherent portrait of a people who pick themselves up constantly, who are propelled by a spirit of success, by a call to the individual and his will.
The blasé European may snub these countless tips, these “How-To” books and the “Personal Growth” section in American bookstores. But it seems to work. Economists predict a rapid end to the crisis in the United States, with a 3.2 percent growth in two years, a slight fall in unemployment already, a rising dollar and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner dispensing advice to a currently weakened Europe.
The contest is not over. American debt is growing, and many still remain unemployed. Europeans may have doubts; Americans are trying their tips.
Your very kind, but don’t be beguiled by what seems to be an out-flinging of optimism in our ads, & the articles in web publications. These are targeted at people who are doing poorly, and have become desperate…they are not optimistic, they are simply looking for someone to tell them what to do, as they themselves have no easily discernible options. It’s at times when people are the least optimistic, that ads for self-help books, & articles trying to draw readers to a website (or to a magazine) become more prevalent.
Remember, unlike Europeans, Americans have no safety net. If you lose everything, you’re out on the street…no house, no food, no health care…it’s the reason the U.S. federal government has kept extending unemployment benefits far beyond the point where they were supposed to run out, in the hopes that the job market will return, which it hasn’t…they’ve warped unemployment insurance into a sort of welfare system, sans health care.
As for the economic soothsayers & their numbers, they have been ignoring the national debt (& shrinking tax revenue to pay for it) more and more these days, just giving it a passing mention…it seems that most of them have decided that the government is the source of all money, and somehow that money will retain value, regardless of if it was simply printed up, as opposed to actually being earned & backed by the actual production of anything.
Our trade deficits are killing us. The industries we have left are becoming more and more reliant on government contracts to continue operating, contracts from a government racking up more and more debt without seeing any increases in revenue, and still refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy, who are now in possession of almost all the GDP.
There has never been a country that has prospered after instituting a service economy, and unfortunately that was the insipid plan Ronald Reagan had for us…his supporters cling to it obstinately, in the same manner a priest would cling to his cross in times of doubt…no matter how far into debt & destitution it takes us, no matter how obvious it becomes that it simply isn’t working.
I wouldn’t look for any real recovery in the states, until the failed regulatory, trade, & tax policies of the last 30 years are reversed, and we start to understand just how wise our forefathers were, when they established the policies of the 1930’s & 40’s.
They went through a depression, too…unlike us, they tried to insure it wouldn’t happen again. But we stupidly tore down all they had put in place, and unlike them, we keep telling ourselves everything is all right, “stay the course”…
…yea, right off a cliff.