Danimal's Adventures

Worrying for America - is "The Dream" about to become a nightmare?

During my time living in North America, I have noticed that some Americans seem to be less "worldly" than others I have met on my travels. I also notice that this view is not uncommonly held and I have been wondering why.

An opportunity arose recently to research this a little further I put together a short essay on the subject in the form of a hypothetical letter to President Bush. It is what I would say if I were given the chance to ask him a question. It is mostly serious but some of what I have said might resonate and a few bits might even raise a smile. See what you think - as always feel free to email me if you feel so moved!

January 2006, Vancouver, Canada

Mr Bush,

Recently, at a café in a small town in Kansas, a waitress asked me where I was from. I replied “the UK ”. She said “I am fine, thanks, but where are you from?”. I repeated my answer but to no avail. In isolation, this dialogue could be put down to the waitress not understanding my British accent. However, it got me thinking. What other reasons there could be for the waitress’s failure to understand that I come from a country called the “UK”? And what are the implications? Americans do have a reputation for being somewhat insular, poorly travelled and unaware of their global surroundings – I wonder, is that fair and, if so, could it be the cause of the waitress’s apparent mistake?

Subsequent research has turned up some interesting statistics. In 2004, only 53m Americans – 18% of the population – had passports[1]. Of those, the majority were held by residents of only four states: New York, Washington, Florida and California [2], notably wealthier coastal states, with better educated populations than average. In 1998, only 9% of Americans travelled outside North America – extrapolated figures indicate that today’s figure is only 13% [3].

Perhaps this apparent lack of appetite for international travel is to be expected, with the country being so large and having so much to see and do within it. Travel distances and costs are often high, both to international airports and the destinations they serve. And Americans typically only get 2-4 weeks vacation per year so they don’t have as much time to travel as, say, Europeans, the majority of whom have passports and who travel extensively. But Europe is not a fair comparison because short distances and low costs make international travel easy. But what about Australians? They are arguably comparable to Americans in terms of their economic means to travel, vacation time and the physical characteristics of their country, yet at 53%, nearly three times the number of Australians have passports than Americans [4]. And, in 2005, 23% of Australians travelled regularly to international destinations (19% if New Zealand is excluded), which is almost double the proportion of travelling Americans[5].

This apparent reticence continues in the field of education. In 2003 only 1.7% of the total global population of tertiary students studying outside their home country is from the United States, whereas, in comparison, Europe (EU15), which has a similar population size to the US, contributes nearly 16.9% to the total [6]. It is notable that Asia (which includes China, India, some ex-Soviet states and the Middle East) contributes 45.8%. So it does seem to be the case that the American People are significantly less well-travelled than others in the world with similar opportunity, and that therefore there may be a case to support their reputation. But why and what are the consequences?

Looking at American attitudes to news and current affairs, a survey found that “the number [of Americans] who follow overseas news closely has grown from 14% to 21% [since 1999] but that a solid majority of the public (61%) continues to track international news only when major developments occur. By comparison, solid majorities keep up with national and local news (53%, 56% respectively) most of the time, not just when something important happens.” [7] This, combined with the fact that TV in the US is driven by ratings, helps to explain the limited amount of international coverage from news services such as CNN and Fox – perhaps the two perpetuate each other. From this, it could be concluded that Americans are simply not as interested in the rest of world as their peers. A logical explanation for this may lie in education and culture.

Europeans and Australasians are taught from an early age to look beyond their borders – they are encouraged to go out and explore the world to “complete their education”, with young people often taking a “gap year” between school and work to do just that. Yet Americans are not, primarily due to intense competition in their labour markets, where “globe trotting”, unless part of a structured educational programme, is generally frowned upon [8]. Anecdotally, it seems that Americans are taught to look inwards and to celebrate their own country and its history. That is not to make a judgement as to who is right and who is wrong, but with that background, there is no wonder that, relatively speaking, Americans are not well travelled. They used to be. In fact, they used to travel more than anyone back in the 1950s, which may help to account for America’s economic position in the world today.

But, Mr Bush, your government is now making decisions on behalf of others that the people who elected you know and care very little about. These are often big decisions that affect all of us ( Iraq being a classic example), which strikes me as dangerous, both to the American People and the rest of the world.

Perhaps of greater concern to Americans would be the future of the United States in the emerging global economy. If the majority have their backs to the 3 billion increasingly well educated people (more than 10 times the population of the US) forming the Chinese, Indian and South American emerging economies, so many of whom travel for their education, then they will not see the economic Tsunami that is headed in their direction. Given that there may be some foundation behind the reputation the American People have for being insular, then they could be forgiven for feeling that theirs is the best, that everyone else would do well to adopt. But only because that is what they have been taught. How many Americans truly understand the significance in the global economy of indicators like the huge 5 state power failure of 2003; the country’s lack of public transport and heavy consequential reliance the motor car and oil; power and cell phone networks run on different standards from much of the rest of the world [9]; the government has failed consistently to step in line with other leading countries on environmental issues; trade barriers and record deficits? I propose that the education system, lack of travel and the US media does little to help the majority empathise with the rest of the world and so see potential improvements and alternatives to the American Way, or indeed wisdom that exists elsewhere in cultures that are more mature than their own.

My conclusion – I worry for America. Is it ready for the new global economy? Are the people ready to compete? Are they embracing competition and rising to the challenges and opportunities that it presents? Are they equipped to leverage the knowledge present in other cultures? Or have they become fearful, retreating behind their own borders, slipping into protectionist trade practices, hoping their inexorable consumerism will prevent the American Dream from turning to a nightmare?

Mr Bush, do you agree that, if the American People’s view of the rest of the world is allowed to prevail unchanged, the American Dream could, in fact, become a nightmare? And if you do, remembering that those coastal states with higher proportions of passport holders did not vote for you in the last Presidential elections, what are you doing about it?

[1] Maura Harty, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs in a speech to the Migration Policy Institute in March 25, 2004

[2] US Office of Central Statistics

[3] US Census Bureau - Statistic Abstract of the United States : 2000 – Sec 7 Parks Recreation and Travel

[4] Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade – Annual Reports

[5] Australian Bureau of Statistics - 3401.0 Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia , 2005

[6] OECD – Education at a Glance 2005

[7] PEW Research Center – June 2002

[8] The Backpacker Boon – Jeff Jarvis, Victoria Peel, Autumn 2005

[9] Power: 45/215 countries run on ~120V, the rest run on ~230V. Of the 45, only Japan , Brazil , Saudi Arabia , Taiwan , Canada , United States , Venezuela and Mexico are significant economies. Source: http://kropla.com/electric2.htm.