Taking America for granted

[DesertFox]

Thomas Sowell

When my research assistant and her husband took my wife and me to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, I was impressed when I heard her for the first time speak Chinese as she ordered food. My assistant was born and raised in China, so I should have been impressed that she spoke English. But I took that for granted because she always spoke English to me.

We all have a tendency to take for granted what we are used to, and to regard it as somehow natural or automatic -- and to be unduly impressed by what is unusual. Too many Americans take the United States for granted and are too easily impressed by what people in other countries say and do.

That is especially true of the intelligentsia, and dangerously true of those Supreme Court justices who cite foreign laws when making decisions about American law.

There is nothing automatic about the way of life achieved in this country. It is very unusual among the nations of the world today and rarer than four-leaf clovers in the long view of history.


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[Rhino]

All Americans should spend some extended time overseas, and I don't mean a vacation in a hotel. You really appreciate what we have when you're away from it for awhile.

[DesertFox]

Yep. That benefit is the sole positive thing I can see in a military draft. When I first went overseas as a young man I felt all apologetic and embarrassed about success. As time went by I came to realize that Third Worlders didn't want ME to be poor like THEM. No, THEY wanted to be rich like ME, though of course I didn't see myself as rich. But compared to them I was rich.

That's when I finally came to realize the magic of America's system, the system that Hillary Clinton and John Fairy Kerry and Albert Gore Jr want to wreck. But it's simple: Take care of the economy by getting the govt off the people's necks, and the people will take care of themselves just fine, thank you, with no govt help asked or wanted

[buzzthepug!]

We are lucky that most people in the world speak or understand some English.

I spent 2 1/2 months in India when I was 20 years old. I turned 21 in Bangalore! I went with my school and we dug a ditch and helped build a center for a village. I slept in a mud room with the family's 2 cows. Great experience for a spoiled American kid.