We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life. —William Osler
Life isn’t nearly as bad as we think. Maybe we should start looking at the positive a little more often.
“You know what your problem is? You can’t see the good because you’re too busy complaining about the bad.”
I wish I could remember the name of the woman who said that to me several years ago. She was a mid-level executive at an ad firm. We were sitting in a creative meeting and I thought I was just being realistic about everything. People have less buying power. The middle class is only buying what it needs. Discrimination is rampant. She was finally fed up with the negativity I spewing and called me on it. She also knew I didn’t have the numbers to back up my claims. Why? Because those numbers haven’t existed for decades.
As a nation, we have a habit of believing the worst, even when there is no real evidence to support it. Gregg Easterbrook first published his book, The Progress Paradox, in 2004. His thesis is that while life has gotten better for almost everyone in the Western world, we actually feel worse about our lives. He draws on three decades of research to make his point, and then dares to suggest that we need more optimism, affirmation, and forgiveness in our lives. No one listened.
Mr. Easterbrook was back this past week with an OpEd piece in the New York Times, “When Did Optimism Become Uncool?” He takes on the notion that mainstream politicians in both parties have convinced us that life is horrible, that it has been horrible a long time, and that the only way to fix it is to elect them to office. He then calls them all liars.
Why? Because they’re not telling us the truth. When one looks at the numbers, we’re much better off than we think. Consider some of the little details he tosses out (based on real research, mind you):
- Job growth has been strong for five years
- Unemployment is the lowest it’s been since the Clinton administration
- The American economy is the largest in the world, more than China and Japan combined
- American workers are seven times more productive, per capita, than Chinese citizens
- Pollution, crime, and most diseases are in extended periods of decline
- Living standards, education, and longevity are all up
- The US military is the strongest ever
- Middle-class buying power is up thirty-six percent in the current generation
- American industrial output is nearly double what it was during the Reagan administration
- Only 10 % of humanity lives in extreme poverty; in 1990, that number was 37%
We are, in anything, afraid of being optimistic? Why? Because we don’t think optimism moves agendas and we all have our fucking agendas. We have this incorrect notion that to get increased funding to study the economic benefits of alternative power that we must first create a doomsday scenario to justify the study. The fact that it would save money and increase efficiency and make everyone’s lives better isn’t enough of a selling point. If we want to encourage domestic investment in manufacturing, we make up some story about losing jobs to China. Sorry, there is ZERO evidence to support that claim. Instead, we’re ignoring the fact that modern manufacturing doesn’t require as many on-floor employees as it did even twenty years ago. US Manufacturing is on the rise, it just doesn’t take all that many people to do it.
We are, collectively, full of negative bullshit. Even worse, we enjoy spreading negative bullshit across social media. One reasonably popular pop singer had her Twitter account suspended this past week after she went on a number of distasteful rants. We see something negative and use it to bludgeon what we see as the ideological enemy; things are bad and it’s their fault.
Did you know that, despite all the negative talk by politicians on both sides of the aisle, the United States still leads the world in science, engineering, business innovation, and every area of creativity, including the arts? What about the fact that, even including 9/11, Americans are still five times more likely to be struck by lightning than being killed by a terrorist? Yet, only 26 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the direction the country is going. What, you want things to get worse?
That is not to say we don’t have our problems. Life could be better I mean, how fucking long as we going to keep talking about bathrooms, already? Drop it. There never was a problem there. Transgender people have been using the restroom with which they identify longer than any of you have been alive and there are no incidents of any kind of inappropriate activity. Let it go, or I’m sending in Elsa with her lesbian lover. And yes, we could be doing a lot better with matters of racism, but those would be severely diminished if we would simply learn to show some respect to each other rather than looking at everyone as the enemy. We are at a point where we are so committed to being miserable that we’re making up things to be pissed about.
Life really isn’t all that bad. In fact, this is a pretty fantastic time to be alive. Mr. Easterbrook uses a quote from Warren Buffet’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that has been fairly popular. I think context is important, so let’s look at the whole of that part of Buffet’s statement:
It’s an election year, and candidates can’t stop speaking about our country’s problems (which, of course, only they can solve). As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do.
That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.
American GDP per capita is now about $56,000. As I mentioned last year that – in real terms – is a staggering six times the amount in 1930, the year I was born, a leap far beyond the wildest dreams of my parents or their contemporaries. U.S. citizens are not intrinsically more intelligent today, nor do they work harder than did Americans in 1930. Rather, they work far more efficiently and thereby produce far more. This all-powerful trend is certain to continue: America’s economic magic remains alive and well.
Some commentators bemoan our current 2% per year growth in real GDP – and, yes, we would all like to see a higher rate. But let’s do some simple math using the much-lamented 2% figure. That rate, we will see, delivers astounding gains.
America’s population is growing about .8% per year (.5% from births minus deaths and .3% from net migration). Thus 2% of overall growth produces about 1.2% of per capita growth. That may not sound impressive. But in a single generation of, say, 25 years, that rate of growth leads to a gain of 34.4% in real GDP per capita. (Compounding’s effects produce the excess over the percentage that would result by simply multiplying 25 x 1.2%.) In turn, that 34.4% gain will produce a staggering $19,000 increase in real GDP per capita for the next generation. Were that to be distributed equally, the gain would be $76,000 annually for a family of four. Today’s politicians need not shed tears for tomorrow’s children. Indeed, most of today’s children are doing well. All families in my upper middle-class neighborhood regularly enjoy a living standard better than that achieved by John D. Rockefeller Sr. at the time of my birth. His unparalleled fortune couldn’t buy what we now take for granted, whether the field is – to name just a few – transportation, entertainment, communication or medical services. Rockefeller certainly had power and fame; he could not, however, live as well as my neighbors now do.
Indeed, most of today’s children are doing well. All families in my upper middle-class neighborhood regularly enjoy a living standard better than that achieved by John D. Rockefeller Sr. at the time of my birth. His unparalleled fortune couldn’t buy what we now take for granted, whether the field is – to name just a few – transportation, entertainment, communication or medical services. Rockefeller certainly had power and fame; he could not, however, live as well as my neighbors now do.
…
For 240 years it’s been a terrible mistake to bet against America, and now is no time to start. America’s golden goose of commerce and innovation will continue to lay more and larger eggs. America’s social security promises will be honored and perhaps made more generous. And, yes, America’s kids will live far better than their parents did.
See? Life really isn’t all that bad. In fact, it’s pretty wonderful. Perhaps we should start being more appreciative of what we have, taking a more optimistic look at the future, and build together for the common good, not because we fear the world is about to fall apart.
Be happy.
Morning Update: 10/14/24
What a difference a day makes; twenty-four little hours. Fall break is over, but that doesn’t mean both kids are heading back to school. G will be in Florida until next Sunday. They arrived yesterday without incident. He told Kat that he didn’t see “that much” damage. That means the biggest danger he’s likely to face down there is ‘gators. I was so concerned about the storms that I didn’t think to warn him about the giant reptiles and their ability to hide in seemingly harmless bodies of water. So, now I’ll worry about getting him back in one piece.
Yesterday involved a couple of interesting conversations with Tipper as well. Since G won’t be here to take the bus with her in the morning, we gave her a can of pepper spray to carry. That required plenty of instruction and warnings against spraying it into the wind. She has to turn it in at the school when she gets there and pick it back up before heading home. We’re hoping she never has reason to use it, but statistics say she will. There was also a conversation about mammograms that Kat fielded beautifully. A friend of Kat’s discovered last week that she has breast cancer. As we were discussing that, Tipper asked about “that thing that squishes them.” Kat was straightforward but gentle in her wording. We’ve had too many friends diagnosed with various forms of the disease this year to ignore the questions.
Then, it had to turn around and get cold. The wind was strong yesterday as the cold front moved in. By this morning, the thermometer was reading 48 degrees. No, it’s not really cold, but we’ve been accustomed to 80-degree days for so long that the contrast feels dramatic. Today’s high won’t get above 60 and by Wednesday, there’s a decent chance of frost. I’m avoiding getting the heavy coat out just yet, though. I layered a hoodie with my lightweight jacket when I took the dogs out this morning. While I’m ready for fall, I’m not ready for the added pain that comes with the cold.
I’m a little pissed that the NFL wouldn’t let me watch the Washington/Baltimore game on Prime yesterday. For some stupid reason, it was blocked here. I never have understood the NFL’s blackout policies. They don’t make a damn bit of sense. Baltimore ended up winning, 30-23. But hey, the Colts won over the Titans, 20-17! That’s more of a comment on how poorly the Titans are playing than anything special the Colts did to win. The game could have gone either way. There were a couple of absolute routs. The Lions completely crushed the Cowboys, 47-9. The folks in Dallas need to be ashamed of that performance and should probably give ticketholders their money back. Steelers whomped the Raiders in Vegas, making those overpriced tickets seem ridiculous. And what the Bucs did to the Saints was anything but holy, taking them out with a score of 51-27. The Bills take on the Jets tonight and if Buffalo doesn’t win by at least two touchdowns I’ll be shocked.
Sadly, not everything is fun and games. Reuters is reporting that the US is sending to anti-missile system and troops to Israel. You read that correctly. We’re putting boots on the ground in an escalating war that has no equitable outcome. This comes as Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen accused UNIFIL peacekeepers in south Lebanon of being a “useless” force. Why? Because they won’t brutally slaughter every person they encounter? This has seriously become the most disgusting war of our lifetime.
China’s acting like a jackass as well. China sent 125 military aircraft in exercises aimed at Taiwan in a single-day record, Taiwan says. Taiwan is holding firm to the belief that China had “no right to represent” the island. Should China get too aggressive, both Japan and the US are likely to become involved. China should stop and consider that outcome for a moment. Japan hasn’t been involved in any conflict since WWII. We wouldn’t let them. Now, China’s aggression against Taiwan is also a threat to Japan. Don’t expect Japan to play nice. They’ve been waiting.
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson win the Nobel Prize for Economics. They studied what caused some countries to succeed while others failed. The question is whether anyone outside of the Nobel Committee will pay any attention to their findings.
Indigenous Peoples Day hits a bit differently this year as many tribes are pushing people to get out and vote. In 2020, tribal voting is what pivoted Arizona for Biden. This year, the effort to get indigenous people to vote is even stronger and there are several states in which a strong turnout could cause a decisive difference.
Meanwhile, research is now saying that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. I’m not sure that has any bearing on the fact that he was a murderous SOB. I’m willing to forget he ever existed.
There’s some other stuff. Meteorologists are facing harassment and death threats amid disinformation about the recent hurricanes. Why? Because people are fucking stupid and believing GOP lies. Fisher-Price Recalls 2 Million ‘Snuga Swings’ After Five Infant Deaths. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission isn’t all that convinced that the recall will do any good. And you should Stop Carving a Hole at the Top of Your Jack-o’-lantern. Unless you have squirrels, in which case it really doesn’t matter because they’re going to eat the damn thing anyway.
If that wasn’t enough, it’s Monday. Not a damn thing we can do about that.
Perhaps, more coffee.
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