Happy Independence Day, everyone!
As we celebrate all things American today, I wanted to share with you a BBC documentary I caught last night. It was about Ireland and how a thousand millennials A WEEK were forced to emigrate for jobs. Whole towns had lost everyone in their 20s and 30s to Australia, Canada, and other countries where work was available. It reminded me of the devastation left after a world war or the potato famine.
The saddest part to me is that we saw it coming. By “we”, I mean Deal Dad and I, who lived in Dublin in 2003 during the rise of the “Celtic Tiger”. At the time we lived in an experiment in “Mixed Housing” that was a noble attempt to have people paying 1500 Euro a month for brand new apartments in the same building that welfare recipients were getting for free. It failed so spectacularly that our complex was featured in a front page story in the London Sunday Times. No experience compares with opening the Sunday paper and seeing a photo of your balcony!
I also saw what “free healthcare” looked like. Every single Irish professional we knew bought health insurance, which DD and I didn’t understand. Their taxes were so high because Ireland had social healthcare, right? Giving birth at Rotunda Hospital in Dublin with private insurance, I had a private room for a week with a single nurse on call and literally state of the art everything. Down the hall in the public ward, the beds were stacked 12 to a room! I do not exaggerate when I say it looked like a scene from a Dickens novel.
My blog is not political by choice. However, I’m in a place right now (Spain) where unemployment approaches 25 percent and my taxi driver, who got up at 4AM for my 30 Euro airport fare, spent 18 years working in marketing for Nestle.
Seeing this, it’s hard not to reflect on the American Dream and its strengths compared to the European model which is literally crumbling at their feet. Americans operate under the idea of equality of opportunity, not the equality of outcome. While work needs to be done, it is the job of each individual to play the hand he is dealt as best he can. America is a grand experiment that has worked for 236 years. Here’s hoping it works for 236 more.
“Americans operate under the idea of equality of opportunity, not the equality of outcome.” perfectly stated. Every American should travel to understand better what this looks like in reality. Great post, my friend.
Thanks! I was afraid of “going there” but couldn’t think of a better day to do so.