Five Reasons to Be Bullish on America

But that's precisely what he did, for reasons at once economic, cultural and political. So in the spirit of raising all of our collective moods, I thought I'd share his outlook:

1. America is still the land of opportunity. In the final analysis -- and even with a record $1.67 trillion budget deficit -- he reminded me that America is still the country that best enables people of all backgrounds to improve their economic standing. He cited a recent figure indicating that the number of people in California whose net worth is between $10 million and $30 million dwarfs the equivalent number for all of Europe. I couldn't track down that particular statistic, but others support its basic thrust. According to the 2009 World Wealth Report, the number of HNWIs (that's "high net worth individuals" to you and me) may have fallen by 18.5 percent in the U.S. in 2008, but the U.S. remains the single largest home to members of this club. Its 2.5 million HNWIs account for 28.7 percent of the global HNWI population (Japan came next with 1.3 million). Mark J. Perry, an economist at the University of Michigan, has also crunched some numbers comparing European countries with American states. He finds, for example, that if France became a U.S. state, it would rank 47th according to per capita GDP, just barely ahead of Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi. Take that, Sarkozy!

2. America's geographic isolation better insulates it from terrorist threats. This gentleman believes that a clash of civilizations is imminent. He also believes -- and he's not alone -- that the next big terrorist threat will be biological in nature, whether it comes through food, water or air. Simply by virtue of not being contiguous geographically to many other countries, the United States is, he argues, less vulnerable to this sort of threat than other Western powers. (That may or may not be correct. If he's wrong, however, it's good to know that the Obama administration is taking steps to beef up the country's response to bioterrorism.)

3. Americans are better at managing internal conflict. We got to talking, as one often does now, about burqas. His feeling was that when Americans have a problem with the way their neighbors dress, talk or act, they walk over to their house and tell them, face to face. Although he didn't put it this way, America is a country that's culturally prone to talk therapy. In buttoned-up Britain, he maintains, where all problems tend to get shoved under the rug, tensions build, neighbors seethe and, before you know it, you're sitting on a veritable powder keg of unspoken resentment and hostility. Me? I look around and see plenty of hostility in America right now. But I think he's got a point that it's generally uttered out loud. Which is, I suppose, positive.

4. American politicians are less corrupt. My own feeling is that British politicians are, on the whole, both more intelligent and more reasonable than their American counterparts. Though there is a fringe here -- on both sides of the political spectrum -- it's not a fringe that normally makes its way into "mainstream" debate. Nor do you have people who might conceivably hold the highest office of the land who aren't sure whether Africa is a continent. But as my interlocutor pointed out, at least American politicians aren't, for the most part, corrupt. The parliamentary expenses scandal that rocked the British political class last summer revealed rampant abuse of public funds for personal gain by politicians of every stripe, from the prime minister and opposition leader on down. In the U.S., in contrast, we have the odd Blagojevich or that guy with the yacht, but it's the exception, not the rule.

5. Americans are more patriotic. OK, I must confess that I didn't see this one coming. My dinner partner asked me why it is that I never see anyone hanging a British flag from their house, as one so often does in America. I shrugged. And he told me that until 2008 -- and for historical reasons I don't pretend to understand -- there were extensive restrictions about hanging the Union Jack on public buildings except on certain designated days. As a result, even though citizens were at liberty to do so, they rarely did. In fact, the Union Jack flag isn't even the de jure flag of the United Kingdom. It's only the flag through custom and precedent. In my dinner partner's view, the ease with which Americans literally "show the flag" reflects a deep commitment to shared values and national pride that evades many other countries, including his own.

So, President Obama -- and my fellow Americans -- take heart. I know that we've all taken a few knocks over the past few years. And people are angry and frustrated with the way things are going.

But it could be worse.


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