The United States is in gradual decline, says Checker Finn matter of factly. “Many people seem oblivious, going about their own affairs without reference to ominous but very gradual trends, rather like the frog that didn’t know it would be boiled because the water in that pot was warming so slowly,” writes the head of the Fordham Institute in his latest Education Gadfly column.
Among the “worrisome signs of national decay” Finn sees are America’s flat education results and sagging international performance:
Nearly all our major test-score trend lines have been horizontal for decades–the small upward and downward blips tend to balance out–and comparisons with other lands show us mediocre to woeful. We could once respond that the U.S. makes up in education “quantity” (e.g., graduation and matriculation rates) what we may lack in quality but that’s not true any longer. Half a dozen countries now best us on those measures, too.
In addition, there is decreasing demand for U.S. dollars overseas, a “staggering” debt burden being passed on to future generations, and a national government that can no longer make big decisions. “Whether the challenge at hand is immigration, excessive litigation, discrepant academic standards, swine flu, financial regulation, hurricane Katrina, mass transit, climate change, Afghanistan–pick your topic–Congress either avoids the problem altogether or kicks the can down the road for someone to worry about later,” writes Finn. He also bemoans “our culture and our politics of polarization, selfishness, and bad manners.”
Finally, we’re giving up on too many of the great challenges and opportunities that we face, including realms where America was once terrific. NASA has pretty much abandoned space exploration, at least the manned kind. We don’t seem even to be trying very hard to extirpate nuclear weapons from Iran. China is turning into the next hegemon. My wife the doctor says that European and Asian countries are more adept and adventurous today in medical research than we are. Airbus is getting a lot more new planes into the air than Boeing. Our domestic auto industry is all but defunct.
Worst of all, Finn is not sure our national decline can be reversed. “The cultural, behavioral, and attitudinal manifestations of declinism seem to me to go deeper than politics.”
Checker has been just a little ray of sunshine of late. First there was his speech at Rice University wondering if it’s time to “throw in the towel on ed reform.” Now this. On the other hand, I haven’t heard anyone say he’s all wet. Anyone?
