As I travel the world I’m always impressed with the patriotism people feel for their own country. I love traveling abroad because most of the time I feel humbled as a guest in another country and very grateful for the hospitality of the citizens. They always seem to have a very deep desire
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to introduce me to, and encourage me to experience, the very best of their foods, traditions, and culture. I feel the same way about my own country, the United States. I think one of the mistakes we make when we teach our children about America’s founding fathers is that there might be so much emphasis on things like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights at the expense of focusing on the people that immigrated from all over the world to participate in that great experiment of free enterprise.
I’ve alluded to this earlier in the book, and I think it’s worth revisiting now in greater detail. There was much more to the success of the United States in becoming a world power in such a short time than merely the establishment of the Constitution. Consider the requirements to become a citizen of the United States in the early history of the nation. Saying that it was formidable is an understatement. America had become known as the land of opportunity. They were risking everything for the opportunity. Just to have a chance. Just to have a shot. For many people at that point in history, there wasn’t even an opportunity to dream in their own country. Property rights were for monarchs not peasants.
Think of what it must’ve taken just to arrive in that land of opportunity. It meant that most would have to say goodbye to their family and friends forever. It meant leaving behind everything you had that wouldn’t fit in the small trunk to make the journey by ship. Many people embarked on a ship across the Atlantic without knowing the language they would need to learn when they arrived.
Upon arrival to this land of opportunity there were no substantial guarantees of any kind—other than the opportunity itself—but simply the chance to pursue happiness. It was a place where anyone had property rights and the opportunity to build something and call it their own. There were no healthcare programs. There were no Social Security programs. There were no unemployment programs.
I think it was a tremendously high risk yet high reward environment. Many people were losers. Many people went hungry. Many people died of illness. People came to the United States knowing that they were literally
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for people to have an opportunity to succeed. An opportunity to become the best they could be. It was not the Constitution that made the people successful. It was the people who made the Constitution successful. That would be a great lesson for legislators of the world today.
Those first-generation Americans had to pass tests that had everything to do with life and death. I imagine it takes a certain type of person with a certain type of backbone, desire, work ethic, and passion to be able to take such tremendous risks just for the chance to succeed with no guarantees.
At first glance, it would make sense that every rising generation would have a head start over the generation before them. They could stand on their shoulders without having to risk life and limb for opportunity. At first glance one would imagine the likelihood of success with each generation would become greater and greater. But on the other hand, each generation has been given the same opportunity but without offering the large sacrifices. Their backbones would not have to be as strong. Requirement to participate would be reduced each generation. Perhaps we are learning today that the opportunity also needs the backbone to make it work. Today’s typical U.S. citizen is not an immigrant. Today’s typical U.S. citizen grows up speaking the language. Today’s typical U.S. citizen was born in a country where they were very unlikely to die of starvation.
So it’s quite possible that because the opportunities afforded in most free enterprise systems were not purchased by the sacrifice of those in the system today, there is a lack of appreciation for what it means to dream big. There is not the same context of work, sacrifice, and most of all the risk of losing big. America is no longer a high-risk/high-yield environment. I hope I’m not being unpatriotic when I say that the entrepreneurial spirit is something that is embraced by the minority rather than the majority.
If there were to be a new “early-America-like” opportunity in the world, I wonder how many of today’s Americans would make similar sacrifices as most immigrants. I wonder if they would sell all they had to come. I wonder if they would say goodbye to their friends and family forever. I wonder if they would emigrate to a land that had no healthcare system and no social security system, but allowed you to keep much more
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