Why does a column about America’s future belong here?

Because the nature of the people in a nation have much to do with how healthy the nation is by many different measures. This writer is using some measures you don’t read about or not often.

This is a column by The Economist newspaper’s “Lexington,” the name used by any reporter assigned this duty.

This is the current Lexington’s next to last column. He can tell it as he sees it. He won’t need these news sources any more.

On Memorial Day weekend, many people remember those who served to defend this country and wonder, frankly, if we still are the great nation we once were. Or can be again, if not.

Lexington offers his views and they should be heartening in a time of great turbulence.

At times, I think The Economist sees us better than we can see ourselves because they understand America but with a cousinly distance which provides other perspectives.

Also, I must confess that it delights me to read that he thinks America has “more intellectual ferment here than any country I know.” So there, France. We can do intellectual ferment, too.

Do read the whole article.

The Economist

…”But even so, I am impressed at how easily people talk to me here, how quick they are to return phone calls, how happy strangers are to show me around their hometowns. There is also more of an intellectual ferment here than in any other country I know. The think-tanks are bigger and pack more intellectual firepower. The universities are without peer, and eager to share their insights with mere scribblers such as me. Many of the politicians I meet think deeply and hard about the issues facing the country. So do many of the businessfolk, and many of the citizens I meet carrying placards in the street. (Emphasis added)

“I’m optimistic about America’s future. The country has high unemployment, crushing debts and a political system that resists making painful but necessary changes. But America also offers a higher material standard of living than anywhere else, and more freedom. By that I mean not only the absence of restraints but also the availability of choices. This is why people with get up and go, get up and come here. And that is why America will keep growing, adapting and improving. (Emphasis added)

Source: The Economist, May 28, 2010