I am passionate about economics, history, politics, theology, psychology, investments, and sports. Though I’m an Indian residing in Australia, I follow most of what is happening in America. For an international investor, at least for now, US policies matter the most.
America celebrated 246 years of liberty yesterday. So the stock and bond markets were closed on the 4th of July to commemorate the occasion.
America, as I see it, is at a sort of crossroads as a country. As a nation, they are fighting for their soul. While they have ruled the world for almost the last 100 years, they now may have to be content to share that coveted spot with up-and-coming nations on the rise. America is coming to grips with that. Yet America is still by far the most influential nation on earth and everything is not lost for America.
The media is drunk on American negativity. Many academics and journalists are full-on to deliver a distorted picture of the US.
Even the founding fathers have not been spared and are under attack. Statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln have been destroyed and pulled down. In many quarters, they are not viewed as heroic figures but merely as degenerate white supremacists. Your history is what it was and it cannot be erased. We are all products of our times.
The beliefs that were held 150 or 200 years back are unthinkable today. If we lived in those times, it is not that it would have been much different.
The enslavement of Black people, the treatment of Native people of the land, and the subjugation of women are all shameful parts of our human history. This has existed and continues to exist in different forms in all parts of the world. Slavery, conquest, and male domination existed everywhere for thousands of years.
As a human race and as we progress, we are supposed to make amends. Even as a 10-year-old boy, when I grew up in a village in India, I sensed the wrong elements of the caste system in India. I used to question folks for treating certain people in an inferior way. But I don’t think, those folks were unkind or people of no values. In many ways, they also changed their views over time. In the place where I am now, the authorities are very guilty of their past oppression. So if you are an Aborigine and you want to progress in life, you have really made it in Australia. We cannot excuse or justify the past but we need to realize that we are all people of our time and need to correct our historical mistakes.
We do not know in another 100 years, how we will be viewed by our future generation on late-term abortions, factory farming, and carbon emissions. It is very easy with our modern sensibilities to look back and see what our past leaders got wrong. But it’s also important to recognize what they got right.
If the American Revolution had included equal rights for Black Americans, Native Americans, and women in 1776 there wouldn’t have been same America as it is now. That is the fallacy of adopting historical occurrences to modern times. We do not know what historical course would have taken to make it to the current time.
It has taken many decades of war between the states, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and gay rights to build a more inclusive society of liberty and equality. It is because of these core principles and values that the founding fathers established that America rose to the top spot in human empowerment and overall wealth for mankind.
Americans are only 4.3% of the world’s population but they create 30% of the annual wealth. They are still the number one economy by a big margin. It is larger than China and Japan combined.
The US leads the world in science, engineering, medicine, entertainment, and the arts. No nation attracts more immigrants, more students, or more foreign investment capital. If Steve Jobs grew up in Syria or if Elon Musk stayed on in South Africa, they wouldn’t have created what they did for humanity. America is still the land of the brave and the home of the free.
How come all the transformative companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Netflix, Tesla, Uber, and Airbnb to just name a few originated in America. Since 1950, mostly half of all Nobel prizes awarded in the science fields have gone to Americans. America provides that platform to grow and develop through its establishments of higher learning, democratic values, and human rights. Of course, there are questionable and debatable areas. Let’s reserve those digressions for another day.
Whatever their political motives and their involvement in maintaining world order, Americans are also the most charitable people in the world, both in aggregate and per capita. The US charitable donations hit close to $500 bln for 2021.
America still cultivates, celebrates, and rewards the habits that make men and women successful. America gives that equal opportunity like no other country for anyone with ambition and grit to move up that economic ladder. Everyone is given a chance or an opportunity to improve their position regardless of the circumstances. It is for you to take it.
I have never heard of people talking about the French dream, British dream, Chinese dream, or even the Australian dream. People may move around for better living conditions or togetherness with friends and families but still, one nation is universally recognized as the Land of Opportunity and that is undoubtedly the USA.
I have to also admit that this hold that America has on humanity, is changing at a faster pace as the earth is becoming flatter in terms of progress and idea generation. For now, let us celebrate with the Americans for leading the world for us to be a better place.
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Abraham George is a seasoned investment manager with more than 40 years of experience in trading & investment and multi-billion dollar portfolio management spanning diverse environments like banks (HSBC, ADCB), sovereign wealth fund (ADIA), a royal family office and a hedge fund.