American Economic Triumphalism Is Over

[marmar]

from The Progressive:




American Economic Triumphalism Is Over
Ruth Conniff, July 7, 2009


Oh, those silly French. Remember how much fun we used to have at their expense? Back in the days when American capitalism seemed destined to rule the world, scorn for everything from wine snobbery to slow food to lengthy summer vacations to national health insurance was a cultural touchstone in the United States.

Europe, along with the rest of the world, was bound to come around to our cowboy-capitalist, profit-maximizing ways sooner or later, Americans seemed to believe.

An arch-Republican corporate lawyer I know used to travel to Paris and roll his eyes at the seasonal white asparagus his hosts served at business luncheons. He was more of a coke-and-a-hamburger, 60-billable-hours-a-week kind of a guy. In other words, a stereotypical American.

Another acquaintance of mine, an investment banker classmate, fresh out of college, worked on a hostile takeover of MTV Europe. He and his twenty-something buddies showed up for a meeting hung over and barfed in a trashcan.

Ah, to be young, brash, and American in the early 1990s.

When did it all end? .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.progressive.org/mag/rc070709.html

[WCGreen]

1. One of the reasons pure American Capitalists "worked" so well...

is because they had little to now competition, especially after WWI and WWII...

[OwnedByFerrets]

2. I believe its actually because we MADE stuff then...we dont now.