Each year, Forbes magazine publishes a ranking of the best countries in which to do business. The United States has fallen to tenth place.
Canada, our good neighbor to the North (and the home of Athabasca University, my grad school alma mater I may add) has moved up from number four to number one. Sandwiched in between are Hong Kong and Singapore, some of the smaller European countries, and New Zealand. Not a sweatshop nation in the bunch – toldya.
This is not your father’s America. Once the undisputed economic champion of the world, we have let ourselves go to seed. Overtaxed, overregulated, over-entitled, over-governed, we have taken our prosperity for granted and deluded ourselves into thinking that printing money is the same as creating wealth.
Tenth place is disgusting, and yet only a small fraction of Americans will be disgusted. An even smaller fraction will feel any responsibility for our decline in the rankings. Fewer still will feel any personal obligation to turn things around and only a tiny minority of those will actually do anything about it. A few will even cheer that we have received our comeuppance.
And that is why we are number ten and falling fast.
A generation of stickers and hugs for trying hard has made us a nation complacent and confused about actual achievement. Many can no longer distinguish between demanding a reward and earning it. We have not lost our ability to compete, we have lost our will. Those of us who are still driven to succeed in the world economy are vilified for our success. Perhaps the call will come to occupy Canada, now that winning itself deserves punishment in the eyes of the class-obsessed.
The governments of the countries who are climbing in the world rankings have reduced taxes on businesses, eased regulatory burdens, avoided deficit spending, pursued sound money policies, and maintained competition (and sanity) in their banking industries. Capital loves predictability and a balance of both risk and reward. Capitalists do not choose to dine with cannibals when there is a choice.
The best thing about Canada is that it is full of Canadians. While it is tempting to paint the country with a broad leftist brush because of its public health care system, there are many elements of the Canadian system that libertarians and conservatives admire and all Americans can learn from.
It is ironic that while the United States central government has usurped authorities guaranteed to the states by our Constitution, Canada maintains a relatively weak central government deferential to Provincial authority - Newfies don’t get to tell Albertans what to do and Ottawa does not sue Edmonton at the drop of a hat. And their governmental units are, by and large, competent.
Although I am fond of teasing my Canadian friends about needing a law for everything, they take their law-making seriously in the legislatures and abide by what their elected representatives have enacted. Not like America where Presidents and governors circumvent laws by executive order and judges just make it up as they go from the bench.
Canadians develop their natural resources. They mine, they drill, they extract oil, they harvest timber, they make wise and responsible use of all of nature’s abundance, unlike Americans who have banned drilling, outlawed mining, and limited logging. Canadians are happy to sell us the stuff that we sue ourselves over to leave in the ground.
The United States of America has been blessed with abundant natural resources, strategic geography, a heritage of enterprise and innovation, cultural diversity and a tradition of liberty. There is no reason on earth why we should not be the number one place to do business; free market capitalism is largely an American invention.
We are number ten because we have chosen to be number ten; or rather number ten has been chosen for us by foolish leaders whose understanding of economics and commerce is only slightly less developed than their common sense.
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. has proposed that President Obama declare a national emergency and take “extra-constitutional” measures to create jobs. Note to Rep. Jackson: President Obama IS our national emergency. Every time he talks, his mine-mine-mine tax plan drives businesses to more hospitable places. The nine of them ahead of us are not low-wage countries; they are low-hassle countries.
As my friend Herman Cain says, “we don’t do two”. We are Americans; we are a nation founded on an economic foundation of free market capitalism. We are wired to prosper, to win, to reach beyond our place and dream beyond our reach; failure is not in our DNA. We can beat the industrialists and workers in the factories of China, Mexico, Vietnam, and South Korea; we do it every day. But we can’t beat the bureaucrats in the cubicles of Washington, D.C. and statehouses around the country.
Those consumed with directing the allocation of a shrinking pie should get out of the way of the pie makers. Those content to be number ten should get out of the way of those of us who know how to erase the zero behind the one.
And those who think going around the Constitution is the sure path to prosperity should read it first.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
Canada, our good neighbor to the North (and the home of Athabasca University, my grad school alma mater I may add) has moved up from number four to number one. Sandwiched in between are Hong Kong and Singapore, some of the smaller European countries, and New Zealand. Not a sweatshop nation in the bunch – toldya.
This is not your father’s America. Once the undisputed economic champion of the world, we have let ourselves go to seed. Overtaxed, overregulated, over-entitled, over-governed, we have taken our prosperity for granted and deluded ourselves into thinking that printing money is the same as creating wealth.
Tenth place is disgusting, and yet only a small fraction of Americans will be disgusted. An even smaller fraction will feel any responsibility for our decline in the rankings. Fewer still will feel any personal obligation to turn things around and only a tiny minority of those will actually do anything about it. A few will even cheer that we have received our comeuppance.
And that is why we are number ten and falling fast.
A generation of stickers and hugs for trying hard has made us a nation complacent and confused about actual achievement. Many can no longer distinguish between demanding a reward and earning it. We have not lost our ability to compete, we have lost our will. Those of us who are still driven to succeed in the world economy are vilified for our success. Perhaps the call will come to occupy Canada, now that winning itself deserves punishment in the eyes of the class-obsessed.
The governments of the countries who are climbing in the world rankings have reduced taxes on businesses, eased regulatory burdens, avoided deficit spending, pursued sound money policies, and maintained competition (and sanity) in their banking industries. Capital loves predictability and a balance of both risk and reward. Capitalists do not choose to dine with cannibals when there is a choice.
The best thing about Canada is that it is full of Canadians. While it is tempting to paint the country with a broad leftist brush because of its public health care system, there are many elements of the Canadian system that libertarians and conservatives admire and all Americans can learn from.
It is ironic that while the United States central government has usurped authorities guaranteed to the states by our Constitution, Canada maintains a relatively weak central government deferential to Provincial authority - Newfies don’t get to tell Albertans what to do and Ottawa does not sue Edmonton at the drop of a hat. And their governmental units are, by and large, competent.
Although I am fond of teasing my Canadian friends about needing a law for everything, they take their law-making seriously in the legislatures and abide by what their elected representatives have enacted. Not like America where Presidents and governors circumvent laws by executive order and judges just make it up as they go from the bench.
Canadians develop their natural resources. They mine, they drill, they extract oil, they harvest timber, they make wise and responsible use of all of nature’s abundance, unlike Americans who have banned drilling, outlawed mining, and limited logging. Canadians are happy to sell us the stuff that we sue ourselves over to leave in the ground.
The United States of America has been blessed with abundant natural resources, strategic geography, a heritage of enterprise and innovation, cultural diversity and a tradition of liberty. There is no reason on earth why we should not be the number one place to do business; free market capitalism is largely an American invention.
We are number ten because we have chosen to be number ten; or rather number ten has been chosen for us by foolish leaders whose understanding of economics and commerce is only slightly less developed than their common sense.
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. has proposed that President Obama declare a national emergency and take “extra-constitutional” measures to create jobs. Note to Rep. Jackson: President Obama IS our national emergency. Every time he talks, his mine-mine-mine tax plan drives businesses to more hospitable places. The nine of them ahead of us are not low-wage countries; they are low-hassle countries.
As my friend Herman Cain says, “we don’t do two”. We are Americans; we are a nation founded on an economic foundation of free market capitalism. We are wired to prosper, to win, to reach beyond our place and dream beyond our reach; failure is not in our DNA. We can beat the industrialists and workers in the factories of China, Mexico, Vietnam, and South Korea; we do it every day. But we can’t beat the bureaucrats in the cubicles of Washington, D.C. and statehouses around the country.
Those consumed with directing the allocation of a shrinking pie should get out of the way of the pie makers. Those content to be number ten should get out of the way of those of us who know how to erase the zero behind the one.
And those who think going around the Constitution is the sure path to prosperity should read it first.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
