<story><title>Happy nations don&apos;t focus on growth</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-20/happy-nations-don-t-focus-on-growth</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pfranz</author><text>I read a similar things a few weeks ago.  They were saying that the U.S. (government through laws and legal system) centered on &amp;quot;fairness&amp;quot; up until recently.  Sometime after WWII the focus changed to Economics and growth.  I&amp;#x27;m guessing it was saying this is the cause of crazy inequality and &amp;quot;the jobless recovery.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure I buy all of it (the U.S. wasn&amp;#x27;t really a world power prior to the world wars, so they&amp;#x27;d be dismissing that and other gains if it was their whole premise), but like this article, something to think about.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>losteric</author><text>&amp;gt; They were saying that the U.S. (government through laws and legal system) centered on &amp;quot;fairness&amp;quot; up until recently. Sometime after WWII the focus changed to Economics and growth.&lt;p&gt;I absolutely agree with this. Considering the history and how we used to run public schools, it seems almost obvious.&lt;p&gt;American nationalism was at an all-time high during World War 2 and we rode that straight into the Cold War... 50 years of anti-soviet propaganda and public discourse, riding the post-WW2 American economic boom and global &amp;quot;anti-communist&amp;quot; imperialism. For an &lt;i&gt;entire generation&lt;/i&gt; community-oriented principles, egalitarianism, collectivist ideas, and far-left leaders were demonized as Soviet sympathizers, replaced with rah rah unregulated capitalism, Ayn Rand-ian individualist, and military might.&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;ve ever wondered why many modern American Christians blatantly disregard the liberal social aspects of Jesus&amp;#x2F;the Bible, look no further. WW2&amp;#x27;s morale-boosting propaganda morphed into a cancer of civil discourse, deeply coupling nationalism with the perceived indisputable success of American capitalism.&lt;p&gt;Consider these two points:
* The Cold War started 70 years ago, and formally ended 26 years ago
* 2016 Trump &amp;#x2F; Sanders popularity, bucketed by age: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.msnbc.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;msnbc&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;age_of_voting_groups_18-24_25-34_35-44_45-54_55-64_65_and_over_chartbuilder_2.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.msnbc.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;msnbc&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;age_of_voting_groups_...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;American society takes time to change because our 2-party system is dominated by unengaged voters, the uneducated electorate that votes without thinking about it... heavily influenced by the world they grew up in, and what they were taught from k-12. When many election results are +&amp;#x2F;- 5%, moving the average 10% in one direction has long-term consequences.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s worth thinking about how our 17 year-old &amp;quot;War on Terror&amp;quot; will continue to change society...</text></comment>
<story><title>Happy nations don&apos;t focus on growth</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-20/happy-nations-don-t-focus-on-growth</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pfranz</author><text>I read a similar things a few weeks ago.  They were saying that the U.S. (government through laws and legal system) centered on &amp;quot;fairness&amp;quot; up until recently.  Sometime after WWII the focus changed to Economics and growth.  I&amp;#x27;m guessing it was saying this is the cause of crazy inequality and &amp;quot;the jobless recovery.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure I buy all of it (the U.S. wasn&amp;#x27;t really a world power prior to the world wars, so they&amp;#x27;d be dismissing that and other gains if it was their whole premise), but like this article, something to think about.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Retric</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s somewhat misleading in 1800 the US population hit ~5.24 million vs England&amp;#x27;s ~9.2 million, it had more than doubled over the prior 30 years.  Economically and Militarily England was much further ahead.  But, unlike Europe the US&amp;#x27;s wars of conquest and genocide where mostly vs the Native Americans. Consider, Ohio only joined the Union in 1803.&lt;p&gt;By 1870 the US GDP PPP(98,374) was at near parity with the UK (100,180).  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_regions_by_past_GDP_(PPP)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_regions_by_past_GDP_(P...&lt;/a&gt; and had a slightly larger population.&lt;p&gt;Around the mid 1800&amp;#x27;s the US was clearly a world power, but in the way Germany is today.  Big enough to have real impact, but not a super power.</text></comment>