Much to admire about the US spirit
IT WAS my good fortune in 1978 to attend Princeton University in the US as a mid-career fellow on a grant from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, one of a slew of American trusts established by wealthy individuals to do good works for society.
Sloan made his fortune turning General Motors into what was then the world’s largest company. He transformed modern management in many ways, but particularly by dispersing authority and functions.
His style was encapsulated in this famous quote: “Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here.” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. “Then,” he went on, “I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until the next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.”
Perhaps that approach could save our government from spending such an inordinate amount of time at meetings, indabas, lekgotlas and so forth.
Sloan single-handedly created the second-hand car market by bringing out new and different-purpose models each year, whereas Henry Ford stuck by his original and historically successful Model T, which one could buy in any colour as long as it was black. Sloan won the race.
Following deep-rooted American tradition, Sloan gave generously to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which named its business school after him. He also endowed the now worldrenowned Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, the world’s oldest cancer centre.
This sort of philanthropy is a quintessentially American tradition seen today most obviously in the work of trusts funded by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and the Walton family, among others.
Many billions of dollars are involved and university endowments reach as high as Harvard’s $40-billion.
Hospitals, high schools, churches, scientific research centres, the arts, culture, museums, orphans, public parks and spaces in the US have been funded and supported by what the historian Robert E Brenner describes as “voluntary benevolence” since the Founding Fathers landed on the shores of the New World.
One of those was John Winthrop, who, in 1630, spoke of his vision for a generous and voluntarily benevolent civilisation: “We must be knit together in this work as one man. We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labour and suffer together.”
All this is not to suggest that the US is a perfect society. There is no such thing and never will be. But it can certainly be argued that it is one of history’s most incredible success stories. It has drawn and continues to draw millions of migrants seeking freedom and opportunity. About a million legal immigrants arrive each year in the US, one of the highest rates in the world.
Demographically, the US is changing fast, but it is interesting that the spirit of free enterprise, risk-taking and philanthropy thrives among the new Americans.
The country also plays host to 12 million illegal immigrants, a social and political headache Barack Obama surely prays he can solve before he leaves office.
Today, the US accounts for 4.5% of world population but 25% of world GDP. China may have grown mightily, but its GDP remains less than half of that of the US.
GDP per capita in the US is about R500 000, whereas China’s is R60 000. No doubt, the gap will narrow with time, but the US remains the world’s powerhouse and a magnet for those seeking freedom and opportunity.