The Outstater
Redefining American Greatness
“Nothing is so important for freedom as recognizing in the law each individual’s natural right to own property.” — Milton Friedman
WE HEAR A LOT about making America great again but not much about what made it great in the first place. That, and not an embazoned baseball cap, would seem the place to start.
In your opinion, then, what made America great, and what will make it great once more?
I’ll go first.
Few today can conceive of what is involved in breaking 60 acres of prairie sod or clearing a field of stumps. Oh, spare me the whining about ecological damage or “indigenous” injustices. It meant working under life-or-death timelines with an all-consuming investment in blood and treasure. An injury or the vagaries of weather could mean failure — a lonely failure without sympathy or excuse or relief.
These heroic vignettes were played out by the hundreds of thousands throughout the Midwest and Great Plains — all for the mere chance to raise a family in meager circumstances on their own patch of ground, which for many European settlers had been unattainable if not forbidden.
In aggregate, it amounted to a historic transformation, one driven by legislative incentives, technological advancements, demographic shifts and not least of all a particularly indomitable American spirit:
- The Homestead Act of 1862 resulted in over 600,000 claims by 1900 and the cultivation of millions of acres of virgin land in states like Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas, an area once shown on maps as a desert. Earlier growth in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio was reinforced.
- To meet the challenge of the new soil, American technological innovations such as the steel plow (1819) and mechanical reapers (1830s) revolutionized farming.
- Most important, productivity, the determiner of economic progress and well-being, multiplied. In 1830 the typical North Dakota farm, for example, could produce only 200 bushels of wheat in a day’s harvest. By 1895, it could produce 20,000 bushels.
All of which provided the economic bolster that enabled America to assert the Monroe Doctrine and establish itself as a global power — greatness within a single generation.
So, what’s equivalency today, who will make America great again?
I spent time recently with a young man who embodies the answer. Newly married, he and his wife managed despite high interest rates to get a mortgage on a three-bedroom ranch, a long-neglected property that will require years of repair and upgrading. They did not qualify for any government-financed discounts or considerations.
When they move in next month he will need to begin acquiring skills in plumbing, carpentry and electronics, all to be applied after 10-hour days or on weekends. He is overjoyed by the prospect.
That is despite losing earlier career opportunities to DEI placements that ignored first a sterling high school record and then a rigorous degree from a distinguished (and expensive) college. To the extent he acknowledges this last, it is that every generation has its own challenges. That includes, alas, the idiocy of its rulers.
Over coffee, he will show you ambitious landscape drawings for raised-bed vegetable gardens and adjacent patches of flowers. Evergreens will be planted to frame the street view. A big dead tree there needs taken down. A creek behind the property will have to be cleared of a log jam, he is not sure how yet. The driveway needs work. His first improvement will be turning the garage into a woodworking shop, a longtime dream. He wants to design and build some of the home’s furniture.
Last month he resigned a position teaching in a public school, security but with stagnant pay and little promise. He has been hired by a private firm with more opportunity — and more risk. His new salary combined with that of his wife’s may be enough to outrun inflation and start a home. Later, if promotions come and prayers are answered, enough to care for a family. Retirement is only a distant abstract, an uncertain one. He understands all of this to be a gamble, a frontier of sorts. Again, he could not be more excited.
Your turn. — tcl
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