All outsiders, not just Britons, view America as a “waste-land”. But, it is a difference in culture.

Even in recession, there will be many people whose lives will be unaffected by the downturn. They cannot be expected to sit back and fret. They have to assume as much normalcy as possible for the sake of their children.

Consumerism is also big. That, combined with the disbelief in global warming, has encouraged people to buy big houses, big cars, big meals (hence, the problem of obesity). It appears wasteful to those who have lived prudently and do not value the “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality. Land is widely available and definitely not at the premium it is in the UK. Overall, cost of living in the US is lower, so they can afford to spend more.

The UK is a small island. The population is rather concentrated. No one can escape the news and everyone seems to be involved in discussions about the economy and politics, etc. You wouldn’t understand it unless you lived there, but many parts of the US are so insular (Chicago’s not one of them, though) that they wouldn’t know much about what was going on outside their little community. It would take a long time for all Americans to be on the same page.

And the point about China: well, there’s a lot of grumbling about that. However, if people are trying to save money, sometimes they have to resort to buying cheap Chinese goods. They would love it if America could produce similar items for the same price. Unfortunately, the way international trade goes, that’s impossible.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/locals_rail_against_wilderness.html

700 idle railtrucks.
70,000 idle nationwide.

Green shoots anyone?

Having now read your article twice, (and having been born in Worcester, England, but now living in San Diego, California), I’m still not sure what it is that you contend Americans “don’t get.”

The United States is a very big country, with a very large population (more than 300 million). It is, in every sense of the word, a massive democracy. Opinion varies by region, much as it does in the UK. Also, opinion shifts over time, again very much like the UK.

Currently, the U.S. federal government is led by those who would prefer to increase domestic spending to something approaching the UK’s percentage of GDP. And, like the government at Westminster, the current American administration is borrowing huge amounts of money to finance these new government outlays. Is it the error in this approach to government you contend Americans don’t get? If so, I assure you that the current approach is only temporary.

In next year’s Congressional elections, a more conservative Congress will be elected (even if the Democrats retain a majority) and there’s a decent possibility that, in 2012, President Obama won’t be re-elected, particulary if inflation approaches the double-digit levels of the 1970s, or if the current administration fails to properly handle the next major international crisis. (If Alaska or Hawaii get nuked by North Korea, or if the country experiences another horrific terrorist attack, on par with 9-11, the country’s government will swing dramatically to the right.)

Right now, the American public is largely giving President Obama the benefit of the doubt, but polling indicates that, even if Obama remains personally popular, support for his left-wing positions and policies is in decline.

I think it is fair to say that the American public is generally more skeptical/sceptical of global warming than the UK population currently seems to be. The particularly-European phobia about “genetically modified” foods strikes Americans as downright batty, equivalent to membership in the Flat-Earth Society. That said, Americans do tend to be strong conservationalists and they are committed recyclers. They are simply more concerned with environmental impacts closer to home (i.e. the local park or beach) than, say, global CO2 emissions — that they can’t hear, touch, or smell.

Americans also tend to be more individualistic, more libertarian, yet, at the same time, more evangelical than the British. (Many of Britain’s Methodists came to the U.S.) Interestingly, there has never been a strain equivalent to Red Toryism or “One Nation” conservatism in American political thinking. I would argue that this is because the United States has never had a landed aristocracy fearful of revolution from below. (And having no such aristocratic tradition, the American population has, and has always had, “vulgar” middle-class, commercialist attitudes.)

So if your contention is that Americans are too large, that development is too spread out, that they consume too much, that their meals are too massive, that their cars are too big, that as a people they’re too loud, that they’re too crass, too pushy, or that they’re too optimistic that things will turn around, I would suggest that those cultural differences result from the self-reliant, individualistic, expansive, democratic culture that has been present since the American colonies were founded some 400 years ago. Compared to the UK, America still is a very young country, a relative adolescent.

But I don’t think it’s fair to patronisingly say that, because of these differences, Americans just don’t “get it.” Indeed, if that’s your standard, mere differences in culture, I’m sure that there’s quite a lot that Americans might say that their friends and cultural cousins, “the Brits,” don’t get either, including that rather revolutionary doctrine that all men are created equal.

Reply: I am a great admirer of US enterprise and freedom. My point is a simnpler and more limited one. The US I visited does not seem to sense that the US cannot go on living beyond its means for much longer, and needs to grasp the changing power balance vis a vis China.

Shopping for Chinese made goods! I hope this isn’t you opinion of what a sound economy is.

(It took some two years before the Americans became aware of the fact that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, so deceitful was the media in revealing the truth.)

And this is why it is so important for the Tories to rein in the BBC. It is far too powerful and far too biased to be allowed to continue as it is.

We have just spent a week on the Isle of Wight, like you if we did not read the papers or watch the TV we would have no idea that the Country was in such a mess.

Not a bad meal all week, with good pubs and restaurants full, no traffic jams, easy parking.

A nice rented furnished house on a tidy farm surrounded by interesting countryside.

Many visitor attractions, well run and reasonable value for money if you chose well.

Excellent country walks (could have done with a few more sign posts)

Yes there were some areas in some towns where there were empty shops, and clearly you had the feeling that not all shops were doing good business, but on the whole most properties commercial and residential, were well looked after with clean and tidy gardens.

Whilst the Sun was not present all of the time, it was warm and comfortable.

Guess that things would look much different in the winter when its raining and cold, visitor attractions are closed, and pubs and restaurants empty.

Not until we visited Osbouine House, Queen Victoria’s holiday home with all of its history did it fully remind us of the Country we used to be, compared to the state we are in now.
What a contrast in only 100 years.
How the mighty have fallen.

Perhaps we should ban newspapers, television, radio and the internet, and then we may all feel better for a short while.
That is until we examine our bank statements.

Oh well, good to get away from reality for a week.

Someday soon they are heading to their Suez moment, where a course of action that the US would always have taken as a matter of course will be denied to them by their new financial masters threatening to call in the IOUs.

After all its what the US did to effectively kill off the British Empire, and then the Soviet empire – both of which where crushed financially.

Its time for those in Taiwan and its neighbourhood to make their accommodation with a rising China, because the sheriff isn’t what he used to be.