Complicated Nature of the “American Community”
Complicated Nature of the “American Community” – The Disparate Components of Our Tightly Bound Separateness – Facts of the Day – Job Growth Requirements
Personal Note to My Readers and Friends,
I have relocated back to Bigfork, Montana for the next year or so where I will remain (except for business travel and speaking engagements) until I complete my next two books over the next months.
I am most pleased that my last two books (the companion The Relevance of Reason books —Business and Politics and —-Society and Culture) are now being regularly advertised in The New York Review of Books and have also now appeared in Publishers’ Weekly.
I apologize for last month’s interruption in my posts, but my regular posts will now re-start. As I write this new post, I look out over a Montana river which is frozen solid and covered with snow. Up above and in the distance are some Canadian geese who seem to be confused, no — annoyed, as they search for “their river.” To little avail, I have tried to assure them that Spring will come.
THE RELEVANCE OF REASON
The Hard Facts and Real Data About the State of Current America
Book One – The Hard Facts and Real Data About U.S. Business and Politics (July, 2013) (408)
Book Two – The Hard Facts and Real Data About U.S. Society and Culture (October, 2013) (438 pp).
NOTE: Although these books are companion books, they have been written as independent, “stand-alone” books. Many buyers get copies of both books, but they can be read separately depending upon the breadth or focus of one’s interest.
Outtake Comments and Reviews
“Stimulating, refreshing, and original…” Wayne S. Bell, Chief Counsel, CA Dep’t of Real Estate, Sacramento, California
”…(A)stonishing undertaking…” Brigadier General Dulaney O’Roark, (Ret), Louisville, Kentucky
“…(R)e-opens the doors to civil dialogue,’ Martha Lange, The Aspen Institute, Santa Barbara, California
Books available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, SummerlandPublishing.com or ask for these books at your local bookstore or your local public or academic library.
Bookstores and public and academic libraries can also obtain copies of these books through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Quality Books, and other distributors.
The Complicated Nature of Our “American Community”
There is and will remain an American community if for no other reason than, begrudgingly or otherwise, we are still “in” America. This will not change. We are each still a piece, our own piece, of this country. It remains ours. Except for a few survivalists back in the deep woods, most of us are still affected by the actions of our fellow Americans– even if we don’t know their names; even if we don’t have their email address; even if their children go to schools far down the road and around the bend. The commonality of Americans will always prevail and that guy in Dutch Harbor will always have the same power of vote as the guy in Key West. Contrariwise, there is a constant tension between our individualism and our desires for selfism and our needs for and obligations to, recognized or not, our community. And in that sense and in other contexts, we will remain unavoidably a separated nation.
We are definitionally separated by geography, by age, and by general association. We are separated by the circumstances of our birth and by the strength or weakness or even presence of our families. From an early age we become further separated by what we have seen and by the sense of hope which may (*or may not) have been instilled in us. We are separated by the quality and later the extent of our respective educations and by the availability of opportunities. We are separated by a wide array of ethnicities, heritage, religious associations, and race, creed, and color. We are separated by our height, weight, gender, and health.
But there is more. Even with our own groups communities, however tightly defined, we are separated by our attitudes, by our dispositions and inclinations, and by our personal levels of ingrained empathy. We hold distinct senses of humor and by our capacity for laughter. By even early adulthood, we are separated by the whims of luck, by the accumulation of our experiences, by our jobs or professions, by our finding of love and possibly by the presence of children and close friends. Time and money allowing, we welcome, but are again separated, by our various hobbies, sports, affiliations, and interests.
And it is all of these disparate beings, all of these disparate pieces which is “Us.” With this in mind, it should not strike us as embarrassing or even disappointing that it is impossible for us to fully “know” our own country. America is not as conveniently small as Andorra or Morocco. It is not as isolated and remote as Bhutan or Nepal. It is not as homogeneous as, until recently, the Scandinavian countries. And yet, too often and especially of late, we fail to understand or to remember that none of us has either a clear or even shared perspective with the rest of the country or its citizens. Instead, we display and vocalize impatience and express almost surprise that others don’t see the same thing; share the same dreams; and draw the same conclusions. We too often forget that things may not be as they seem to us and that few things in society — especially those relating to politics ort economics — are “obvious” to all.
Borgen, M., The Relevance of Reason – Business and Politics and —Society and Culture, pp. 25-26.
Facts of the Day
Need New Jobs Per Month to Keep Up With Popluation Growth and to Push Unemployment Down to 5%-6%
In order to keep up with U.S. population growth, nearly 100,000 new jobs per month are needed, and in order to push unemployment down to the 5%-6% level, almost 250,000 new jobs are needed per month. Borgen, M., The Relevance of Reason – Business and Politics (2013), p. 133, citing The Week, August 17, 2012, p. 3 and N. Schreiber in TNR.com.
As of 2013, however, more and more of the new jobs being created are at substantially lower wage rates than in prior years. “50% of all jobs created in the last (2) years (appr. 2010-2012) paid $13.83 an hour or less.” Contrariwise, only appr. 22$ (about 1 in 5) of the new jobs were in the “mid-wage” class of $13.84 to $21.00 per hour.” Borgen, M., The Relevance of Reason- Business and Politics, p. 133, citing bottomline.nbcnews.com, September 5, 2012 and data from the National Employment Law Project.
