Third World America - Arianna Huffington [62]
Then, Hurricane Katrina destroyed my home and rental properties in New Orleans. My family and friends were displaced and scattered across the country. So after working for the same company for twenty-two years, I resigned and relocated to Texas, along with my parents and five sisters. I put my career on hold to rebuild our lives. Two years later, I’m still unable to land a suitable full-time position (at any level)—despite more than twenty-five years of expertise.
The world has obviously changed for the middle class. Now the only guarantee that today’s worker can expect is that you put in a day’s work, you get a day’s pay—that’s it.
So, like millions of other middle-class workers, I’m being forced to reexamine my career, lifestyle, priorities, interests, goals, and future. Although I’ve exhausted my savings and face insurmountable debt, I’ve decided to step out in faith—or better yet, take a leap. I’m managing my own business full-time, designing products to help people plan and organize their everyday lives. I’m determined to establish a business as an inheritance for my children.
5
SAVING OURSELVES FROM A THIRD WORLD FUTURE
And now for something completely different … some good news: Third World America is not a done deal.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that the wheels are coming off our national wagon, I believe deeply that America can still accomplish great things: that our greatness is not necessarily a thing of the past—indeed, that our best days can still lie ahead of us.
I realize that coming after the litany of all the ways America is falling apart, this might sound overly optimistic. Or delusional. Or the result of hitting the ouzo in despair. I understand that the initial response to the first four parts of this book might be to walk onto one of our crumbling bridges and contemplate jumping off.
But that’s not how the American psyche works. We’ve always been a positive, forward-looking people. A can-do attitude is part of our cultural DNA. And that mind-set is a prerequisite for turning things around. Without it, the seeds of change and innovation will wither in a soil that is an arid mix of negativism and defeatism. With it, we can shake off our cynicism and avoid the slow slide to Third World status.
As a country, we have an unparalleled track record for marshalling our forces and rising to meet great challenges. It is one of our greatest strengths.
After Pearl Harbor, America’s naval force was decimated. But just three years later, as John Kao points out in his book Innovation Nation, “America had a hundred aircraft carriers fully armed with new planes, pilots, tactics, and escort ships, backed by new approaches to logistics, training methods, aircraft plants, shipyards, and women workers” along with “such game changing innovations as the B-29 … and nuclear fission.”1
We had a similar reaction to the Soviets’ launch of Sputnik.2 “We responded with massive funding for education,” writes Kao, “revamped school curricula in science and math, and launched a flurry of federal initiatives that eventually put Neil Armstrong in position to make his ‘giant leap for mankind.’ ”
President Obama captured this essential part of the American character when he announced the kickoff of his Educate to Innovate campaign—a nationwide effort to move American students back to the top in science and math education.3 “This nation wasn’t built on greed,” he said. “It wasn’t built on reckless risk. It wasn’t built on short-term gains and shortsighted policies. It was forged on stronger stuff, by bold men and women who dared to invent something new or improve something old—who took big chances on big ideas, who believed that in America all things are possible.”
Many economists and historians are warning that our current economic downturn has created a new normal—that the country will never be the same. Things are, of course, going to be different. But that doesn’t mean that they are predestined to be worse. However, if we don’t get serious about the crises we face, they will be.
America is rich with resources