Would America Be Better Off If We’d Lost The Revolution?
I have been thinking about some of the implications of Michael Moore’s Sicko. Specifically, why is the United States the only nation in the developed world without some sort of equitable, government-funded health care?
I am just wondering if we can look back to the American Revolution for some answers. To be exact, did the American Revolution undermine the modern United States’ willingness to engage in the sort of social democracies we see throughout Europe, Canada, and increasingly other nations as well?
I don’t have a solid answer for this. But I’m going to play a little counterfactual game to help think about these issues.
Let’s say the American Revolution fails. What happens?
We are Canada.
Is that so bad? I don’t think so.
The larger issue is this: What would the world be like without America as it is today? How would WWII have played out were this country not the military power it is? Who would have kept the Soviet Union in check during the cold war? Whose economy would have been responsible for nearly every major technological breakthrough of the last century? From the automobile to airplanes to computers and the internet, America has dominated.
And do you know why we’ve dominated? Because we’re not Canada.
This country, unlike Canada or any European nation, is a global economic and military powerhouse. Again, we didn’t get there by being Canada or Germany. We got there by being America, and being American means embracing individualism over collectivism.
We believe in individual rights in this country, not collective rights. Our nation’s founding was predicated upon each citizen being free to pursue his/her own destiny and success, but not upon the government providing that success. Or even a happy life.
Personally, I don’t want America to be Canada. I want America to be America, and feel that if my fellow citizens want this country to be Canada they should just move to the nation that actually is Canada.
