There once was a dream called America.
Ever since I can remember, I have known that the United States of America is a special place. My earliest memory of the Fourth of July was the biggest Fourth of them all, our nation’s Bicentennial. Here we are 50 years further on.
My family came to this country before it was a country, landing here in 1709 after fleeing the Rhine region between France and Germany. They did so for the same reason most colonists came to the New World: religious freedom. They also came to escape the rigid class system of Europe. The New World, unlike the Old World, was a meritocracy. Anyone who applied themselves and worked hard and wisely could achieve financial success. It did not matter whether your ancestors were aristocracy; here, everyone was created equal.
This was the beginning of what has been called the American dream – this strange experiment of a truly free market overlaid by Judeo-Christian morals. This odd combination created what has become the greatest nation on earth, surpassing our European cousins who in many ways still cling to their aristocracy and the ideas of a class system. This perplexing mix of Puritans, Quakers, farmers, and merchants melded together to create a combination that was unstoppable: free-market capitalism constrained not by the government, but by the morality of society.
This is America’s secret sauce: our love of freedom combined with the sense of responsibility. It has seemed hard to see in recent years. There is an alarmingly large group willing to sacrifice that freedom, at least in part because they don’t want responsibility – yet the two are symbiotic; we cannot have one without the other.
In our divisiveness and self-loathing, we have forgotten that America has stood the test of time for 250 years. We are truly fortunate to call the United States of America our home. If you don’t believe me, just look at the social media feeds of all those European soccer fans who have come here for World Cup soccer. Despite expecting a tense political climate based on international news, fans are marveling at how incredibly welcoming locals are. Sometimes we need to see things from an outsider’s point of view as we too easily take our blessings for granted.
Mississippi is the poorest state in America; yet, for perspective, according to data from the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, it has a higher GDP per capita than both Great Britain and Germany. It also has a higher literacy rate than both Great Britain and Germany. People are dying in Europe today because of a heat wave, while the Europeans here for the World Cup marvel at the wonderful American invention of air conditioning. We have even convinced them that sports are better when played in quarters instead of halves…okay, they are calling it a “hydration break,” but the fact remains they are stopping play roughly halfway through each half. A quarter by any other name is still a quarter.
Why all the love for America? Part of it is that the World Cup games have been so geographically widespread. It has given soccer fans following their teams a reason to see America for the first time in a lot of instances, but even if not for the first time, they have seen more of America. Kansas City is not a hot spot for European tourists, but it is a great city full of nice people, like most of America. They are loving America because America deserves to be loved.
We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are that bright shining city on the hill, even if we fail to see it ourselves. I think back to the bicentennial; 1976 was not a great time. We were licking our wounds from Vietnam and embarrassed at home by Watergate. Four years later in 1980 came a turning point. That winter we had the “Miracle on Ice,” when the U.S. beat the Soviet Union in hockey and went on to win Olympic gold. That summer we hosted the summer games in LA. It became okay to be patriotic again.
I don’t know if our soccer team can repeat that miracle, but I for one will be pulling for them. Even if they fall short, maybe it is enough to read the average European review of Buc-ee’s. America has never been perfect, but from its first declaration it has always been great. Our secret sauce is freedom with responsibility; the belief that we don’t need an aristocracy because we are self-governed. We should all be proud to be American. At least that is my perspective.
Happy 250th!
Warm regards,
Chuck Osborne, CFA
