|
2018 Was a Pretty Good Year, by Victor Davis Hanson
Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford
University.
The year 2018 will be deplored by pundits as a bad year of
more unpredictable Donald Trump, headlined by wild stock market gyrations,
the melodramas of the Robert Mueller investigation and the musical-chair
tenures of officials in the Trump administration.
The government is still shut down. Talk of impeachment by the
newly Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is in the air. Seemingly
every day there are sensational breakthroughs, scandals and bombshells that
race through social media and the Internet -- only to be
forgotten by the next day.
In truth, aside from the Washington hysterias, 2018 was a most
successful year for Americans.
In December, the United States reached a staggering level of
oil production, pumping some 11.6 million barrels per day. For the first time
since 1973, America is now the world's largest oil producer
Since Trump took office, the U.S. has increased its oil
production by nearly 3 million barrels per day, largely as the result of
fewer regulations, more federal leasing, and the continuing brilliance of
American frackers and horizontal drillers.
It appears that there is still far more oil beneath U.S. soil
than has ever been taken out. American production could even soar higher in
the months ahead.
In addition, the United States remains the largest producer of
natural gas and the second-greatest producer of coal. The scary old
energy-related phraseology of the last half-century -- "energy
crisis," "peak oil," "oil embargo" -- no longer
exists.
Near-total energy self-sufficiency means the U.S. is no longer
strategically leveraged by the Middle East, forced to pay exorbitant
political prices to guarantee access to imported oil, or threatened by
gasoline prices of $4 to $5 a gallon.
The American economy grew by 4.2
percent in the second quarter of 2018, and by 3.4 percent in the third
quarter. American GDP is nearly $1.7 trillion larger than in January 2017,
and nearly $8 trillion larger than the GDP of China. For all the talk of the
Chinese juggernaut, three Chinese workers produce about 60 percent of the
goods and services produced by one American worker.
In 2018, unemployment fell to a near-record peacetime low of
3.7 percent. That's the lowest U.S. unemployment rate since 1969. Black
unemployment hit an all-time low in 2018. For the first time in memory,
employers are seeking out entry-level workers rather than vice versa.
The poverty rate is also near a historic low, and household
income increased.
There are about 8 million fewer Americans living below the
poverty line than there were eight years ago. Since January 2017, more than 3
million Americans have gone off so-called food stamps.
Abroad, lots of bad things that were supposed to happen simply
did not.
After withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, the U.S.
exceeded the annual percentage of carbon reductions of most countries that
are part of the agreement.
North Korea and the U.S. did not go to war. Instead, North
Korea has stopped its provocative nuclear testing and its launching of
ballistic missiles over the territory of its neighbors.
Despite all the Trump bluster, NATO and NAFTA did not quite
implode. Rather, allies and partners agreed to renegotiate past commitments
and agreements on terms more favorable to the U.S.
The United States -- and increasingly most of the world -- is
at last addressing the systematic commercial cheating, technological
appropriation, overt espionage, intellectual-property theft, cyber intrusions and mercantilism of the
Chinese government.
The Middle East is still chaotic, but it is a mess that is now
far less important to the U.S. for a variety of reasons.
Energy-wise, America
is not dependent on oil imports from corrupt Gulf monarchies or hostile
Islamic states.
Strategy-wise, the new fault lines are not Arab and Islamic
cultures versus Israel or the United States. Instead, it is internecine
strife within the Islamic world, mostly with Iran and its Shiite satellites
opposing the Sunni Arab monarchies and more moderate Middle Eastern regimes.
For all the pro- and anti-Trump invective and media hysteria,
the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation circus, and the bitter midterm elections, the U.S. was
relatively calm in 2018 compared with the rest of the world.
There was none
of the mass rioting, demonstrations and street violence that occurred
recently in France, and none of the existential and unsolvable divides over
globalization and Brexit that we saw in Europe
Europe's three most powerful leaders -- Angela Merkel or
Germany, Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of the United Kingdom --
have worse approval ratings than the embattled Donald Trump.
|
In 2018,
unemployment fell to a near-record peacetime low of 3.7 percent. That's the
lowest U.S. unemployment rate since 1969. Black unemployment hit an all-time
low in 2018. For the first time in memory, employers are seeking out
entry-level workers rather than vice versa.
The
poverty rate is also near a historic low, and household income increased. There
are about 8 million fewer Americans living below the poverty line than there
were eight years ago. Since January 2017, more than 3
million Americans have gone off so-called food stamps.
Abroad,
lots of bad things that were supposed to happen simply did not.
After
withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, the U.S. exceeded the annual
percentage of carbon reductions of most countries that are part of the
agreement.
North
Korea and the U.S. did not go to war. Instead, North Korea has stopped its
provocative nuclear testing and its launching of ballistic missiles over the
territory of its neighbors.
Despite
all the Trump bluster, NATO and NAFTA did not quite implode. Rather, allies and
partners agreed to renegotiate past commitments and agreements on terms more
favorable to the U.S.
The United
States -- and increasingly most of the world -- is at last addressing the
systematic commercial cheating, technological appropriation, overt espionage,
intellectual-property theft, cyber intrusions and mercantilism of the
Chinese government.
The Middle
East is still chaotic, but it is a mess that is now far less important to the
U.S. for a variety of reasons. Energy-wise, America is not dependent on oil
imports from corrupt Gulf monarchies or hostile Islamic states. Strategy-wise,
the new fault lines are not Arab and Islamic cultures versus Israel or the
United States. Instead, it is internecine strife within the Islamic world,
mostly with Iran and its Shiite satellites opposing the Sunni Arab monarchies
and more moderate Middle Eastern regimes.
For all
the pro- and anti-Trump invective and media hysteria, the Brett Kavanaugh
confirmation circus, and the bitter midterm elections, the U.S. was relatively
calm in 2018 compared with the rest of the world. There was none of the mass
rioting, demonstrations and street violence that occurred recently in France,
and none of the existential and unsolvable divides over globalization and
Brexit that we saw in Europe
Europe's
three most powerful leaders -- Angela Merkel or Germany, Emmanuel Macron of
France and Theresa May of the United Kingdom -- have worse approval ratings
than the embattled Donald Trump.
In sum,
the more media pundits claimed that America was on the brink of disaster in
2018, the more Americans became prosperous and secure.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment