American Dream
Why the World Still Needs the United States of America
Nowhere else does the American dream exists
The de-dollarization is upon us. For the first time in half a century, the United States Dollar and the United States’ global domination are being challenged. The biggest challenge comes from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).
For the past few months, the news has been about the rise of a new currency by BRICS via the New Development Bank and the United States’s currency rating being by FITCH.
Experts and non-experts voice their opinion all over the media on why the world would be better off without the United States’ leadership and how the multipolar world is the way forward.
The United States currently has as the biggest economy in the world. However, what cemented its leadership wasn’t just its economy, but its culture. Rarely does the news mention the United States’s leadership on culture and innovation. The United States’ invention has been embedded in the world through technology, food & beverage, and skincare, to name a few.
Many countries want to take the place of the United States in total global dominance, but none of the people in these countries ever asks, are they up for the task? To be able to dethrone the United States globally means taking over its role economically and culturally.
Are these countries able to offer their own people what the United States has been offering everyone on the planet for centuries and made it the cultural powerhouse it is today? Can any country vying for a place at the top give its people a fighting chance to improve their lives and their future generation regardless of the color of their skin, personal believes, and background?
When I think about world leadership, living in Asia, the United States doesn’t come to mind. Chinese presence has always been strong here. It started with the arrival of Zhang He centuries ago during the golden age of the Silk Road.
China’s presence is all around the Asian region, and it gets stronger by the year. Whether it is in the form of investments in infrastructure projects, or in education. Many Asian parents now send their children to Mandarin lessons from a very young age to keep up with the future of China ruling over Asia. There is no denying the influence China has in Asia.
Despite all the infrastructure investments China has made all around Asia, China lacks the one thing that the Unites States is famous for. China rarely gives opportunities to foreigners. There’s a saying in Asia that “China is for the Chinese”.
Have you ever heard of an immigrant moving to China or any other country and made it big? I mean really big. Like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk big. No? That’s because no other country will ever give a foreigner an open opportunity the way the United States does.
Looking at some examples, would Trevor Noah be world famous if he had stayed in South Africa? What if Barrack Obama stayed in Kenya? Would he have become the President of Kenya or would he be opening an electronics repair shop?
I know what you’re saying “Oh, but those people are supernovas, few and far in between. They were destined for greatness”. Fair point. So let’s take it down a notch and look at the average you.
People similar to you and me, who moved to the United States and got a 9–5 job shall we?
I recently met a man who came to the United states straight after high school, after being persecuted for religious believes in his home country. Before I met him, I believed that the American Dream only existed in movies and TV shows. A marketing gimmick to increase tourism and investment into the United States, because everybody loves a rags to riches story right?
This man never went to an Ivy league university for his Bachelor’s Degree. He didn’t live in a picturesque suburb playing Lacrosse. And he didn’t have a legacy last name like Van Der Bilt, Aster or Hilton. But through drive, determination and hard work, he managed to land a job as an asset manager in one of the biggest investment banks in the world. Today, he manages over USD 200 Billion dollars. What would he have become if he stayed in his home country? An accountant, a mathematics teacher, or a nameless office worker creating zero impact in the world?
Today, in addition to managing hundreds of billion of dollars in assets, he is also giving back to his war torn homeland by using the skills he has learned in the United States and seeking investments to help rebuild demolished infrastructure.
Imagine if his parents had moved to another country, Malaysia, France or the UK. Would he be provided the same opportunities in these old countries? Countries where a person’s last name and origin is often questioned, and a person’s dress code is dictated by the state? Forget making an impact, he would probably have difficulties landing a decent paying job.
Too specific you say? Not everyone wants to be a finance bro? Sure it’s easy to make it when you move to the United States in your youth and spent years in the American system, speaking their language. Ok, I hear you. Let’s take a look at the story of Sampriti Bhattacharyya.
Sampriti came from Kolkata, India to the United States on her own, at age 20 for an internship. She didn’t go to the top school in India and went to a small community college. She only had access to the internet in her house at the age of 20.
How did she get that internship? She sent 540 emails and received one reply. One email changed her life forever. In her native India, she failed Physics in high school. Her teacher said to her that she should focus on being a housewife. And yet she was determined to change her life.
During that internship she fell in love with science. This raises the question, was Sampriti bad at Physics or was it taught and presented in a way that did not speak to her? This is where culture factors in. In the United States culture and education system, students and staff members are encouraged to ask questions.
If we make a mistake, then we learn from it. This is not the case in the European and Asian education system and work force. Teachers and higher level team members are perceived to know what is best for their students and staff members. Nobody is encouraged to ask questions.
After that internship, Sampriti continued to pursue knowledge in physics and engineering and received an internship in NASA. She then received a Masters from Ohio State and a PhD from MIT. Today Sampriti lives in San Francisco and is the CEO of Navier, the first flying boat in the world. Not bad for someone deemed qualified to be a housewife in her home country.
Sampriti excelled in the United States because there is no stigma or preconceptions of what a person is capable of due to their gender or background. Nobody in the United States ever told her she should focus on being a housewife because she failed one subject in high school. In the United States, your determination takes you to the highest level that you can achieve.
This is what the American Dream is about. Giving everyone an equal opportunity to reach their fullest potential and giving opportunities for the next generation to have a better life.
If you watch Shark Tank (it’s ok, we’re all guilty of it), there would always be an entrepreneur whose parents came to America with nothing and then have their children grow up to attend Ivy league universities and obtain six figure jobs.
This could not have happened anywhere else. That Elis Island mentality doesn’t exist anywhere else. The mentality of having two different culture working together, giving strangers the opportunity for them to learn and grow regardless or their background. All of this is almost non existent in the old country.
There is a lot of animosity when it comes to America these days. Often highlighting all the bad that it is doing in the world. But what no one ever mentions is that no other country in the world, gives a person a fair chance the way the United States does.
The United States has always branded itself as The Land of the Free, free of family affiliation, free from a caste system and free from persecution in any form.
If Sampriti stayed in Kolkata she would be a mother of 3 today, making Samosas and sending her husband packed lunches everyday. If the asset manager stayed in his country, today he would be in a refugee camp or working a minimum wage blue collar job with no hope in sight.
The United States had always given individuals hope. Hope for the American Dream. It was the North Star for many people around the world. People who were born in the wrong caste and not allowed the right opportunity. Women who were deemed to only be housewives and work minimal jobs for pocket money. Children who weren’t born with the the right last name or skin color and have all doors shut to them before they could ever prove themselves.
There is a reason Ellis Island existed and why people from all around the world ventured into the brave new world. There was hope in the unknown. Today, the United States may be losing its footing in global economic dominance, but it hasn’t lost its footing in cultural dominance.
Now more than ever, the world needs the United States.
Now more than ever, the world needs the American Dream.
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