American+Culture+CK

Chris Knortz 10/24/2011 Sustainability Issues: American Culture Debate

In the past decades the increase in standard of living in the United States has been supported by ever increasing volumes of consumption. This cultural shift was brought about after the Second World War. In this time the U.S. was in a unique position, the industry created by the war was easily retrofitted to civilian products also there was almost no damage to the nation’s infrastructure because of the war. In these next decades American culture was transformed to one of conspicuous consumption. Campaigns by the government, prominent business men, and consumer goods producers all encouraged this change (The Persuaders). For the people living in the U.S. there was a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity, more generally this trend was seen in most of western culture. This model of growth and consumption became the goal for many of the developing nations around the world, China, India. Some now argue that this is the only model that promotes fair growth and prosperity. Others show this is a limited model for economic development, only providing short term gains with potential long term devastation. With either evaluation of the American Culture of growth the entire world population has an opportunity to live a higher standard of living or face environmental crisis. Inside each argument there is a diverse array of critical points of interaction with the global economy and environment. The argument that American Culture is a danger to the long term survivability of the planet was taken by Naomi Klein, in a short speech “Addicted to Risk”. She is an author that rights books based on the risky culture in American business and society. In her speech she speaks more directly about the risky behavior that is allowed and encouraged in American business and government policy. This style of decision making is shown to occur in almost all aspects of society. One well knows example would be drilling off the north shore of Alaska, where a cleanup would be almost impossible, potentially spilling vast amounts of oil destroying a pristine landscape. Another example is ideology that entered the country into a full scale war with no legitimate exit strategy. She argues that the decisions in U.S. are made with little or no regard to the long term consequences, whether it is political strife or environmental damage. This style of thinking can be traced back to the origins of the country, the idea of Manifest Destiny, to conquer the entire continent from sea to sea. After the continent was settled and tamed, the idea was adapted to raising the nation’s position on the world stage. To fulfill this dream, as in the past, resources were extracted to produce more goods. There was no consideration for proper economic development and environmental precaution. As Klein goes on to state, even when the problems are seen, the only answer that is presented is the development of more technology, more unguided growth. She argues for a more cautious approach to development. In this argument she asks whether the world can afford to be wrong about some of the decisions being made. One example she uses is climate change, can the world afford the risk to delay reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, possibly risking the entire global climate. Klein argues for a reduction of risky decision making in most aspects of American Culture. However this has always been one of the great features that made the U.S. successful. In the list of Values given on ChangingMinds.org, there are several that describe American Ideals that promote hard work, integrity, ingenuity. Making innovative choices, risky decisions, is part of living these American values. These are values that define American culture. Klein is arguing to remove one of the factors that drives the development of American culture. She also never looks at the other side of the economic picture, the people who are employed and supported by the consumption and growth in America. In the film The Corporation, it was discussed that much of the world depends on the consumption in America to support their economies. America consumes about 1/3rd of all the goods produced in the world. If this cycle was to stop, as it would if Klein was followed, much of the world would be struggling for employment. On the other side would be the position that the American idea of continuous growth is the only possible way for continued prosperity. This is position has been held by many making decisions in government and the business world for many years. One such example can be seen in Ronald Reagan during this announcement speech for the presidential race. During his speech he makes many statements that imply the rightful dominance of American culture over the people of the world and the environment. Another point that is made several times is the reduction of the size of the government and its regulation of business and development, “It (the government) has overspent, overestimated, and over-regulated”. Reducing the government’s size would partially come in the form of eliminating regulation, with regards to energy, reducing regulations allowing exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas reserves in the U.S. This reduction in regulation on industry is seen as the primary driving force behind economic growth. Reagan holds the position that less government and regulation will lead to higher standards of living and prosperity for the American people. During his speech he uses the budget deficit since WWII to point out the failures of previous administrations with a larger than necessary government. However in the years after that speech the budget deficit increased to many times what it was in 1979 even with governmental policies that he was advocating. Currently the national debt in just below $15 trillion (USDebtClock.org), this has been created after years of spending on foreign wars and poor economic conditions. These conditions can be traced back to risky behavior that is allowed under Reagan’s style of government thinking. Business men are allowed to make short sighted and faulty decisions. The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a good example. The Executives at BP and government officials knew of the risks to drill in such an extreme location, however they only saw profits not potential disaster. The other dominate idea in the speech is the idea of the overwhelming power of the American people. Much of this rhetoric is used to inspire the people for his upcoming election however this attitude can be seen in the work of his and later administration. One quote to show his belief of dominance would when he spoke of the nation’s energy future, “we must do such things as master the chemistry of coal”. He trivializes the pollution problems of coal, making them appear to be results of a lack of technology, all these issues can be solved with more American ingenuity and creativity. Reagan never addresses the inherent problem with coal, that is it a naturally dirty fuel that produces large amounts of greenhouse gasses. He sees the short term solution not the long term disaster that could result. A further look at the economic policy doctrine set down by Reagan is required to make a judgment of the value of his work. This is provided by Murrary Rothbard, writing for Ludwig von Mises Institute, the article argues against the value and actual application of Reaganomics. The other article is by Peter Ferrar, who writes for Forbes, this article argues the supremacy of Reaganomics over the current polices used by President Obama. The economic policy known as Reaganomics, politicians have tried to apply it to much of the policy making in the past few decades. Reaganomics was attributed with one of the longest periods of economic growth that lasted till 2007 (Ferrara). During Reagan’s candidacy speech he makes several critical remarks about the over spending in government and stifling regulations on industry. During his administration he worked to remove many of these regulation, however taxation and spending did increase (Rothbard). During his administration military spending was increased because of the cold war, also taxation on lower class citizens was increase. The resulting growth in deficit and government size was unnoticed by the public because of the unrestrained economic growth that resulted from the elimination of many regulations. One of the most effective was reducing regulation on oil exploration and extradition in the U.S. while eliminating the price controls, this created an oil surplus reducing the price of crude by 50% (Ferrara). There is evidence that Reagan did not adhere to his own teachings, in his administration it has been shown that he increase the size of the government, raised taxes, and increased regulations on financial markets (Rothbard). The policy doctrine that has prevailed over the past decades has been one of short sighted gains, not long term economic and political development. In the Rothbard article, the tax reduction promised by Reagan for the people only applied to those in the wealthiest tax brackets, with a net increase for many others. The deregulation sighted by Ferrara, did apply to the oil industry. However as noted by Rothbard, there were many new regulations after the stocks fell in October of 1987. This was a reactionary set of polices to compensate for the present crisis. These actions are the results of the pursuit of short term political and economic gains. Much of the evidence presented by the articles supports Klein’s position that American culture has resulted in risky decision making for many years. This has been shown to originate in the core American values and extend to the highest level of political power. This is a pattern of risky decision making that only looks for the short term benefit. There is no true consideration for the future consequences of actions, in a politician’s or businessman’s career, this is long after they have moved to a different position and many have forgotten of their actions. The cost of short term political decision making, cutting regulations and increasing deficit spending, will be paid for one day. This payment may be in the form of bankruptcy or environmental collapse.

Personal opinion: There is some level of risk associated with any creative or innovative action. This is an inherent problem that drives some away from this course of action, however along with that risk is a great potential for reward. Klein is arguing for a restrain on such risky behavior, not a complete stop. Many institutions are set up to minimize the risk for those making decisions, one example would be a corporation, the employees are not jailed for their inappropriate actions. This leads to overly risky behavior in their pursuit of something that rewards them, profit. This is true in terms of politics as well, Reaganomics was used as an extreme example that is the end was corrupted by Reagan for his own short sighted gain. The idea of working for short term growth of the economy by removing policies and organizations that protect people and the environment is one that is not sustainable when looking at the lifespan of a country. This model that has been preached for the past several decades may have created unprecedented economic growth, however it may now be causing an even larger recession that could last for decades that is just beginning now. There is growing evidence of the collapse of systems of nature around the world, as well as growing disparity between economic classes. A continuation of such a system cannot be sustained. Institutions that promote decision making based on long term development are needed in the future. This ranges from governments, to business, even to families. This would involve a complete cultural shift away from reactionary action and culturally motivated decisions, to making decisions based on reason and fact. The only solution is increased education and political understanding of the public. Making this happen in the future will be one of the largest social changes to obtaining a truly sustainable culture.

Klein, Naomi. “Addicted to Risk” Ted Talk. 2010 [] Reagan, Ronald. “Official Announcement of Candidacy for President” Reagan2020.us 1978 [] Ferrara, Peter. “Reaganomics Vs. Obamanomics: Facts and Figures” Forbes. 2011 [] Murray, Rothbard. “The Myths of Reaganomics”. Lidwig von Mises Institute. 1987 [] Frontline. “The Persuaders” Public Broadcast Service. 2004 Steele, Edward and Redding, Charles. “American Values” ChangingMindes.org 1961 []