If you did nothing but look at newspaper headlines over the past year, you could be forgiven for feeling a little less thankful than usual this holiday season.
More Americans are out of work than at any time in a generation. Our military machine is mired in two endless wars. And Washington's political class seems overmatched by the historic challenges before it. Democrats were fired from their jobs in Congress a few years after Republicans got their pink slips from voters. Meanwhile, approval ratings for Congress and both parties have plummeted to all-time lows.
Given that grim backdrop, it's fair to ask why anyone should be grateful for the state that America finds itself in this holiday season. Notwithstanding apocalyptic forecasts from both political extremes, the fact is that America remains a richly blessed nation.
Despite two years of bleak forecasts and doomsday scenarios, the United States is still the most powerful economy in the world. We've been No. 1 for more than a century, and that's not going to change anytime soon.
The United States remains the center of the world in the areas of technology and innovation. We produce 20 percent of the world's gross domestic product, run the planet's largest stock exchange and hold its biggest gold reserves. America has won more than 260 Nobel prizes and has long dominated in the field of science. Japan hasn't even cracked double digits in Nobel prizes awarded, and the only time Chinese nationals won the award is after staging a human-rights struggle against their own government.
In an age of science and technology, maybe that explains why 150 of the world's top companies are based in the United States. That's more than twice the number of our nearest competitor.
The U.S. dollar is still the world's currency, with the greenback accounting for 50 percent of the globe's cash reserves. The European Union's euro is second by a mile.
For all the whimpering about how investment is leaving America, more invest in the United States economy than in any other country. Our closest competitor doesn't get half the money for economic investment in its country as America does here at home.
The United States is also the largest investor across the world, again doubling its closest competitor. So the next time you hear this year's frightening version of the old ‘80's classic, "The Japanese are buying Pebble Beach," just relax. Donald Trump is buying up their golf courses, too.
When it comes to productivity, the American worker remains the champion of the world. The truth is that U.S. workers are so good that we have become victims of our own success. If American factories' productivity were at 1993 levels, 10 million more workers would be required to equal 2010 production levels. Put another way, American efficiency is as responsible for the loss of manufacturing jobs over the past decade as outsourcing to foreign countries.
For those who look back to the halcyon days of the 1950s and wonder whatever happened to American manufacturing supremacy, remember that the United States owned more than half the world's GDP during those "Happy Days" for a reason. More than half of the world's industrial base had been destroyed by World War II. As Japan and Western Europe rebuilt over the next generation, it was inevitable we would lose that monopoly.
Despite all the grim warnings about the collapse of the "Made in America" brand, the United States is doing just fine and is still home to 20 percent of the world's manufacturing.
That's not to say that America doesn't face challenges moving forward. We face a structural debt because of our aging population. But once Washington faces the reality that demographics is destiny, that long-term problem will be resolved by simple math.
The bigger challenge comes from an economy that has dominated the industrial and information ages. A new era is dawning, and no country is better suited to dominate a century shaped by technology and innovation than the United States of America.
Our education system is unparalleled. The latest U.S. News & World Report education survey finds that 12 of the top 15 universities in the world are in the United States. A recent Chinese study declared 8 of the top 10 institutions of higher learning to be in America.
When it comes to ranking the world's top engineering and IT universities that will fuel economies in the future, our dominance begins to look gaudy. The top three ranked schools are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.A.), Stanford (U.S.A.) and UC Berkeley (U.S.A.). California Institute of Technology (U.S.A.) is ranked 5th, just behind Cambridge (U.K.).
America does come up short in the area of K-12 education because of social inequities that still plague our nation. But the Obama administration has challenged the education establishment, and a dramatic overhaul of public education may be the greatest achievement of the 112th Congress.
For centuries, a country's power has been measured by its military might. If that were the guide in the 21st century, America would be the most powerful nation in the history of mankind.
The United States spends more on its military than the next 15 countries combined. And it is hard to imagine a world capital that could keep the U.S. Marines away if our war machine decided to invade. When it comes to military might, we are without peer. This dominance continues despite the fact that America spends less on defense as a percentage of GDP than we did throughout the Cold War and Vietnam.
Our military's greatest challenge is getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan and cutting the Pentagon's budget in ways that do not weaken our national defenses. For the sake of our long-term health, that has to be done sooner rather than later.
Beyond hard military power, the United States continues to be that shining city on a hill for all the world to see. America's soft power continues to be its greatest asset across the globe. Despite a decade of unpopular wars, there is still no country on the planet that draws immigrants like America.
Without apologies, I believe that American exceptionalism is a fact of history. The same promise of a better tomorrow that drew pilgrims to the New World in 1620 calls out to millions even today. And almost four centuries after the pilgrims celebrated our first Thanksgiving, we Americans have more to be thankful for than ever.
Happy Thanksgiving, America.
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