America - what went wrong?

Last weekend I returned to Canada for a book event and some media appearances in Calgary, Alberta. I was so struck by the differences in our two countries that I felt compelled to write about them.  There was a time when Canada seemed to follow the United States and we were the free world’s leader.  No more.  Being in Canada really showed me how far wrong we have gone, here in America.

The Culture of Fear

When I was a teenager, I hitchhiked all over New England.  I never feared for my safety, and I never got attacked.  Today, many Americans are afraid to drive cars alone many places, and hitchhiking is asking to be killed.  Yet the statistics show that the chances of being assaulted while traveling are actually lower today than they were forty years ago.

We have a few cities that are deemed walker friendly, but most are dangerous, either in spots or in total.  I don’t know if that is really true, or just a perception, but the perception of Canadian cities is that it’s safe to walk anywhere, any time.  And enough people do it that I think I’d know if reality were otherwise.

I got lost on one of my walks, and strolled into a Calgary police station to ask directions.  When I walked in the door I found a broad counter, with an officer at a computer terminal, helping someone else.  When he finished I asked for directions to the freight yard, and he went to Google Earth and printed me directions.

I was struck by his friendliness, and his accessibility.  In an American city, the desk cop would have been hiding behind inch-thick bulletproof glass.  My own town – population 20,000 – is like that.  What are we afraid of here?  Do we perhaps invite attack by such unfriendly facilities?

The difference between the feel of the Canadian police station and similar places in the US is striking.  Individual cops may well be the same, but there is an institutional accessibility and friendliness in the Canadian structure that surely influences every interaction within. 

I asked the cop if it was safe to walk there, and he looked at me in surprise.  Of course, he said, it’s safe to walk anywhere.  Just watch out for cars!  You would never hear that in a big American city.  Why not?  Is it all attitude?

I saw that same friendliness in most everyone.  Business people, waiters, people on street corners, kids on skateboards . . . all welcomed me.  

And then we have the airports . . . 

When you walk through any American airport you are assaulted by endless recorded messages.  The threat level is Orange.  Do not let your bags our of your sight, lest someone stuff dangerous objects into them.  And on and on.  What has all that achieved, besides making air travel a lot more uncomfortable?

Walk through any Canadian airport and the lack of threats and warnings is refreshing.  It’s like walking through an airport here, twenty years ago. 

The costs of our airport security are obvious.  Where are the benefits, as compared to other countries?

The economy

Right now, Canada’s published unemployment rate stands at 7.6%.  That’s quite a bit better than our rate of 9%, but that one number does not tell the whole story.  Canada’s rate has averaged just over 8% for the past 35 years, whereas our unemployment skyrocketed from 4.5% to 10% when the economy collapsed a few years ago.  They do not seem to have the ups and downs we have here.

And the other part of that story . . . taxes in Canada average 10% higher than what we pay here, but in exchange for that Canadians get health care and security that we seem to strive for and never attain.  For me, the $14,000 I pay for health insurance alone would more than make up any tax difference.

Walk through most major cities in the USA, and you see shuttered buildings everywhere you go.  In places like Buffalo, whole sections of the city lie abandoned.  Canada has nothing like that form what I have seen this year.

The result: Just as Canadians do not seem to fear their neighbors and their cities, they do not seem to fear for their jobs or economic security. 

Politics

An analysis of American news stories shows that we devote a disproportionate share of our media coverage to inter party squabbles and scandal and tabloid coverage.  Reasoned discussion of the hard issues facing our country has fallen by the wayside.  How is it that the Canadians have avoided this “tabloid trap?”  I don’t know, but I wish we could devote a bit more effort to solving the real problems in this country.  Congressman Weiner may be entertaining but there is a real fundamental problem when stories like his dominate the news, and we remain mired in a war no one wants with one person in six in my home city out of work.

Population and production

Is the fundamental problem that we have too many people here?  Or is the issue that too many Americans are riding on the backs of too few real production workers.  I could not find any statistics to show the percentage of Canadians engaged in actual production versus administration and government workers, compared to the USA.  But I’ll bet it’s lower.

Creating and making things is what made this country great and strong, yet that is not where we focus our education or job creation efforts.   I wonder if we can bring that back; at times it feels like the bureaucracies are too entrenched.  Would our TSA workers move from their current jobs to doing something that adds value, like making cars or computers?  So many of the new jobs we’ve created in the past 20 years actually harm our country’s efficiency and its ability to compete globally.

Food

I have been fortunate to eat in good restaurants, both here and abroad.  One thing I notice when comparing Canada to the US is the greater emphasis on natural and organic foods.  Our Canadian neighbors seem to have a better handle on food that’s safe and healthy.

The environment

The Canadians have some notable environmental messes, like the oil sands mining.  However, that is contrasted with much more use of wind and water power, and a generally grater regard for the environment.  For example, Canada uses much less salt on its roads and they have reduced salting in the past decade.  We have gone the opposite way in the Northeastern US, and our roadside grass is dead while our cars rot away. 

I’ve been a believer in our country all my life.  But seeing the contrast between the American of today and our neighbor to the north brings home just how far we have diverged from the image of America the great I had as a kid. 

I wonder if we can move back in that direction?