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DEL.ICIO.USAmerica could use a little ‘tough love’ from leaders
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We Americans have a high regard for ourselves. We are —- or so we tell ourselves —- the richest, the most generous, the most powerful, the most peace-loving, the most productive, the most wise and most lovable nation on the face of the earth.
We also love politicians who dare to tell us all those wonderful things about ourselves. Like any people, we want to think well of our country and take pride in it, and we want leaders who take pride in it as well.
But there’s a difference between justified pride and illusion. Too many Americans seem to believe that our place in the world has been divinely ordained and thus permanent, when in fact it is the product of past sacrifice and wise choices. It can all be lost if we also lose the capacity to look at ourselves and our problems honestly.
For example, it is no longer true that we are the richest nation in the world. Quite the contrary, in recent years we have become the world’s biggest debtor nation. We are financing our prosperity in the manner of an old but declining aristocratic family, living beyond our means year by year by pawning off the assets earned by earlier generations.
But our leaders don’t dare to tell us that truth, because they know we wouldn’t take it well. Even as they acknowledge some minor current difficulties, most of our political and business leaders reassure us that our economy is still sound as a dollar. They don’t happen to point out that compared to the euro, the value of that dollar has declined by a third in just the last five years.
Yes, we remain productive, but that too cannot last if our government is too poor to invest sufficiently in our public infrastructure. Our roads, bridges, rail lines and ports are crumbling and insufficient in a modern economy, but we decline to tax ourselves to correct that situation. Our nation’s Highway Trust Fund —- the main source of infrastructure investment —- will be bankrupt by 2009, yet we refuse to increase gasoline taxes to replenish that account.
Officially, we tell ourselves we can’t afford it. But meanwhile we ship fortunes to oil producers overseas, where the money is put to such useful and productive purposes as building ski resorts in the Arabian desert.
There are no easy answers to $4 gasoline, but our leaders are nonetheless eager to offer a few. Some choose to bash the oil companies, as if they are at fault for our addiction to their product. Others suggest suspending the federal gasoline tax, which would slightly and temporarily ease our pain at the gas pump but do nothing whatsoever to cure the underlying disease.
President Bush, for his part, suggests drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, yet another seemingly pain-free solution. But we could drain the wildlife refuge of every single drop of oil it might hold and it would not lower the price of gasoline a nickel. Nor would it alter our strategic situation in any meaningful way.
Four hundred years ago, an English writer-philosopher offered great advice to a counselor to King James I. Always tell the king the truth, Sir Francis Bacon wrote in a letter to his friend. Tell the king what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear.
“If you flatter him, you betray him,” Bacon warned. “If you conceal the truth of those things from him … you are as dangerous a traitor to this state as he that riseth in arms against him.”
A lot of things have changed since Bacon’s time. In this country, We the People are now king, but Bacon’s truth still applies. Those advisors and courtiers who flatter us also betray us.
Instead of flattery, we need honesty. We don’t need leaders to tell us how great we are, we need leaders willing to tell us that we’ve gotten ourselves into a bad mess and it’s going to take hard work, sacrifice and cooperation to fix it. The alternative is the decline of a great nation.
Or, as a writer-philosopher named Bob Dylan once put it:
“If it keeps on raining, the levee’s gonna break;
Some people still sleepin’, some people wide awake.”
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By John Shackleton
May 1, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
Your editorial and that of Charley Reese in today’s paper ought to be on the front page of the paper so that readers begin to learn about our country. Maybe they can spot them better as they head to sports or metro sections of the paper. Thanks for your insight that needs to be shared at a national level.
By Fred Johnson, III
May 1, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this
Charity begins at home and then moves abroad. Baby boomers are getting older which is going to exhaust our social security and health care systems, the infrastructure of our states and cities are crumbling, we’re sending money abroad with little to no accountability and our current leadership and presidential candidates are spinning the truth to suit their own agenda. And we, the people that are alert and awake, say nothing and do nothing as the train of destruction rumbles down the track towards us. Shame on the people
By Wild Bill Hiltner
May 1, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this
“Oh Jay” Bookman, attempts to butcher America once more. Fixes for energy = “nucular” power, drilling in ANWR and along the coasts - Oh Jay is against all of them; hard truths that would make America better = voter ID laws, stay-at-home moms, traditional values, protecting the lives of all citizens - Oh Jay is against all of them; things that put America behind the eight ball = identity politics (see Obamalama ding dong and voter id oppostion), decay in traditional values and ethic, handing Al Queda victory- Oh Jay is for all of them. Oh Jay you are a waste of time in a waste of time paper - too bad you are not black so that you could get a pulitzer, too.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
May 1, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this
Hi Jay,
Nice bit…Fareed Zakaria is making the rounds for his new book that essentially says the same thing.
Unfortunately it’s a race to the bottom. The folks that are benefiting from all this mis-management have no interest in making the system more stable. All they have to do is cast just enough doubt (a’la big tobacco) over whatever concern is expressed, and the true believers will continue fighting for them.
Even while they ski in the desert.
By jabster
May 1, 2008 10:51 AM | Link to this
Wild Bill:
I think America could use a little “tough love” too, just on a different array of liberal, I mean progressive, subjects. While we’re at it, let’s cut entitlement spending (Socialist Security, Mediscare, MediKoolAid) to balance the budget and tell those folks to gut it up too.
Just another day where libs are all up on sacrifice and “tough love” until their own oxen get Algored.
By Ronald
May 1, 2008 11:27 AM | Link to this
Jay, I am a conservative who agrees with you. We are mortgaging our future and frittering away the riches of those who built them, all because we cannot be bothered to do the hard work necessary to rebuild our economy and overhaul our lifestyles. Both politicians and Madison Avenue have a product _ the American Dream _ to sell and the inconvenient truth is it needs massive renovation.
I cannot agree with you, a liberal, without getting a mild dig in, though.
Bookman wrote: Some choose to bash the oil companies, as if they are at fault for our addiction to their product.
Now imagine if the sentence said: Some choose to bash the tobacco companies, as if they are at fault for our addiction to their product.
What would your opinion be then?
By BS Aplenty
May 1, 2008 11:29 AM | Link to this
Jay, excellent analysis. I would modestly add that the U.S. may engage in (very) unbalanced trade for short-term political reasons for which we incur debts. Hamilton believed in using some debt for political purposes - like insurance against bad behavior (debt can be repudiated you know). Emerging & self-serving trade partners like China like to manage their currency and prevent a re-balancing of trade. That will change.
We’re still the wealthiest major nation on earth in per capita GDP and absolute productivity. However, as you aptly point out, all the hard won gains can be easily given back if we fail to be honest with ourselves.
By Mary Moon
May 1, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this
Rainbow Patriots for Obama
By Ronald
May 1, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this
We cannot continue along the path of petroleum being our primary fuel. Developing alternative energies, including more nuclear, must be a top national priority, but our so-callled leaders, who should be making this happen are not leading.
By mike
May 1, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this
Wild Bill You must be one of those white blue collar workers whose household income is under fifty thousand dollars a year. It shows with you ignorance. Stop listening to Rush and Bill and start reading on your own, oh I forgot you cant read.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
May 1, 2008 11:58 AM | Link to this
Ronald,
I can’t speak for Jay on your earlier question, but I can take a stab at the answer…
The difference is that Tobacco is a non essential product made popular by image advertising an addicitve properties. More harm than good comes from this product in terms of our economy as a whole, as there is no real benefit, but the impact on health care and lives is very, very large.
Oil is pretty much the most important element of our economy. We have to have it. The impact on our economy as a whole is direct and large, while the impact on healthcare and lives is generally related to secondary sources like car accidents and pollution.
By Understandinglee
May 1, 2008 12:11 PM | Link to this
Another brilliant piece, Jay. It’s not too far-fetched to envision Lincoln taking a similar angle on things 150 years ago. Where has our ability to make sacrifices and own up to our responsibilities gone? Sadly, it’s fading away with the “Greatest Generation“…
I feel like sending 100 copies of this column to Lil’ Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and to each of the presidential candidates.
As for Wild Bill Hiltner, I hope you have some excuse — lobotomy or drugs? — or are joking. If not, you’re emblematic of the name-calling, win-at-all-costs-rather-than-care mentality that is plaguing this country.
By Ronald
May 1, 2008 12:56 PM | Link to this
I’m not a fan of big tobacco, but the wording of Jay’s sentence was so nearly identical to what liberals have said about tobacco companies, I couldn’t resist needling him.
Now read some editing of your post:
The difference is that (SUVs, luxury sedans, etc.) are a non essential product made popular by image advertising. More harm than good comes from this product in terms of our economy as a whole, as there is no real benefit, but the impact on health care (pollution) and lives is large.
Oil can no longer be the center of our economic universe. We have to break this addiction. We invented the gas guzzler and the rest of the world, for the most part, rejected it because they couldn’t afford it.
By The Oddball
May 1, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this
We must break our oil addiction before our economy becomes hostage to the oil producing nations of the world — and the developing nations that will outbid us for it. Keep our oil in reserve for the future. Then, foreign oil won’t be a strategic interest of the United States, and we won’t have to send our young people overseas to die protecting access to it.
By RealityKing
May 1, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this
Did Jim Wooten write this conservative view point for you J??
Except that draining of AMWAR part, it would indeed reduce the price of gas, if only for a while longer. But isn’t that would our technolgy advancements need.., more time??
By RealityKing
May 1, 2008 1:48 PM | Link to this
Oh yeah…., I really love the Bob Dylan part J.
“If it keeps on raining, the levee’s gonna break; Some people still sleepin’, some people wide awake.”
Especially in remembrance of the way you overlook the personal responsibility of the residents and local government in New Orleans. You know…, the ones that didn’t heed the two evacuation notifications or bother to coordinate and execute the CITY’S emergency plan that they were supposedly trained for..
And now, in the aftermath of the hate filled political blame game, we find out that it was in fact a man-made disaster due to the lack of proper levee maintenance. So who J going to hold responsible for the real deal(thousands of deaths) still waiting to happen from the direct hit of a category 4+ hurricane?
Do I smell hypocrisy in J’s editoral on self responsiblity??
By sunshine and thunder
May 1, 2008 2:22 PM | Link to this
The solution:
Drastically alter the tax system even to the point of converting to a consumption tax. Simplify and cut taxes.
Remove ludicrous regulations that prevent small business start ups.
Radically change our legal liability system so that loser pays in frivolous lawsuits.
Admit, and do something about, the union pay scales that make every other country more competive in the labor market than our own.
DON’T bow down to the economy destroying greens. When the economy is in trouble it surely won’t help to kick it harder with stupid ideas about global warming.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
May 1, 2008 2:38 PM | Link to this
Ronald,
Yeah, I hear ya…SUV’s are a drain. Folks gotta drive though, they don’t have to smoke.
If it were me, a guy could take marta from Marietta to Stone Mountan and stop by Virgina Highlands for a beer, but I ain’t running the world.
Til then, the people with the money will continue buying things that they want at the expense of the rest of us struggling to get the things we need.
By Mike
May 1, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this
Another liberal scolding America. Yawn.
By LyleV
May 1, 2008 4:16 PM | Link to this
Anyone who has been reading Jay Bookman’s column over the years or knows him (as I do) must realize that his observations about where our nation is headed have often bordered on prophetic. We ignore the warning bells he’s ringing at our own peril. We need a new way of THINKING about our problems and a renewed civic resolve to hold elected officials (and the media)accountable for their actions, or lack therof.
By AL
May 1, 2008 5:02 PM | Link to this
Typical liberal hate America first diatribe. I doubt Bookman has ever been to a foreign country other than on vacation. Hey Jay spend some real time in another country pal, maybe even one you claim we have fallen below. Canada maybe where Socialism has cripled the small business. Maybe Europe where the lack of immigration laws and over taxation has changed every country. How bout Africa? nuff said on that total disgrace. How bought Mexico where they drill for oil recklessly everywhere and sell it to us. How bout Haiti? Get out of Atalanta you liberal hack!!!