The Depressed Superpower

[russian33]

By Gabor Steingart in Washington

As frustration takes hold in the land of optimism, Americans are beginning to resemble Germans. They are collectively depressed over the Iraq War, the weak dollar and the aging of the baby boomers. Presidential candidates are left to preach change to an electorate that is afraid of it.

All it takes to find out why America is in such a bad mood is a look at the local section of any American newspaper, at the photos of the smiling faces of soldiers killed in Iraq.

All it takes to discover why Americans are beginning to doubt their own greatness is to accept an invitation to a dinner hosted by Adrian Fenty, the mayor of Washington, DC. His vision, says Fenty, is for students in the District of Columbia to receive their books at the beginning of the school year, not in the middle. When asked whether he has other visions, the mayor nods enthusiastically. His goal, he says, is to improve security in the city's schools. Fenty wants to make sure students in the United States capital can once again leave the classroom without facing the threat of violence.

All it takes to understand why the United States, a once-proud economic power, seems so unsure about itself these days is a walk through a supermarket with author Sara Bongiorni. In her book "A Year without 'Made in China': One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy," Bongiorni describes how even those who call themselves smart shoppers have mixed feelings when they purchase low-priced, foreign-made products. "When I see the label 'Made in China,' part of me says: good for China. But another part feels a rush of sentimentality because I've lost something without exactly knowing what it is."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,519890,00.html