We’re Screwed

How do I know? Because David Brooks thinks things are just peachy.

Some of the points in his article are no doubt true – for example, America’s enviable global competitiveness – but in looking out 30 or 40 years, Brooks fails to note how the ascendant socialist ethos of this administration, and the foundation it is trying to lay for even further government encroachments on the private sector going forward, may prove to be game-changers.

So, what other good news does Brooks bring us?

In addition, the U.S. remains a magnet for immigrants. Global attitudes about immigration are diverging, and the U.S. is among the best at assimilating them (while China is exceptionally poor). As a result, half the world’s skilled immigrants come to the U.S.

It’s not the skilled immigrants who are bothering me. It’s the millions of unskilled potential immigrants who may wind up pouring across our southern border as a result of the increasing levels of violence in Mexico and Central America. And although the process of assimilation has long been one of our country’s strengths, in the past there was something well-defined, appealing and unique to assimilate. The liberal diversity-mongers, ably assisted by a president whose alienation from the concept of American exceptionalism is indisputable, are more likely to turn our country into a kind of modern-day Austro-Hungarian Empire, with numerous competing factions having little or no loyalty to the nation or to its traditions.

And what would a Brooks column be without the trademark, poorly-thought-out social babble?

As the world gets richer, demand will rise for the sorts of products Americans are great at providing — emotional experiences. Educated Americans grow up in a culture of moral materialism; they have their sensibilities honed by complicated shows like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and “Mad Men,” and they go on to create companies like Apple, with identities coated in moral and psychological meaning, which affluent consumers crave.

As the rising generation leads an economic revival, it will also participate in a communal one. We are living in a global age of social entrepreneurship.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to start crating up my emotional experiences right now and ship them off to China before the dollar collapses. Pots of money in it.