Aimless America

Oscar B. Johannsen

[Reprinted from The Gargoyle, November 1972]

Recently, The Wall Street Journal made a survey of the United States and came up with the conclusion that there is an increasing tendency on the part of the people, whether rich, poor, young or old, to turn inward, to be moody and introspective. Inflation, race problems, crime and lack of opportunity apparently are causing people to take a "what the devil may care" attitude and become involved largely with personal problems, rather than grand causes.

Surprisingly, this seems also to be true on the campuses. The young instead of displaying the militancy so. evident only a few years ago, are now indifferent, if not, apathytic.

... . ) Many adults feel they are more or less prisoners of their jobs. Incentive to work hard simply does not exist as there are relatively few positions at a higher level to which they could aspire.

All of this led to the conclusion that the most apt description of the country today is "Aimless America".

If this is so, if this is not merely a passing fancy which will change when some crisis erupts, it is a sad commentary of the land which held so much promise in the 19th Century.

Yet, in a sense, it is not unexpected. As long as land is privately owned, the tendency will exist for the division between the rich and the poor to widen. While a few of the rich will make excellent use of their superior opportunities, many of them will be bored with the lack of necessity for constructive effort.

For the rest of the people, they find themselves confronted with bigger and bigger organizations. The government is getting ever bigger with sprawling bureaucracies which it is increasingly frustrating to deal with.

: ~ ^ Not only does everything seem to be getting more expensive but the service is deteriorating. Industries which are regulated, as the railroads and bus companies are either going bankrupt or obviously will shortly, so the state and federal government are either taking them over or becoming involved in their operation in one way or another.

The companies which are surviving as private enterprises have governmental control in the form of wage and price controls. With profits restricted by the controls what is the incentive to be efficient? Those companies which will probably manage to exist will almost certainly have some monopoly, particularly the land monopoly, and they are tending to get bigger and bigger, despite all the government's efforts to reduce their size.

With fewer companies, there are fewer worthwhile positions. In a truly competitive society, there would, be millions of small companies doing a very efficient job with lots of opportunity for advancement. This would tend to create a much happier type of person as he feels he is doing something constructive and at the same time can look forward to, recognition by his peers through promotions or some form of remuneration attesting to the contributions he is making.

America is still so dynamic, however, that it does seem that it is a bit premature to say that it is aimless. Possibly what The Wall Street Journal detected might be the first signs of a deterioration, which unless changed will truly mean that America's outlook is aimless.

America has such a large proportion of people who have been subjected to at least some, education that no one can predict what will happen if large percentage of the people feel frustrated and that their lives have little or no meaning. Instead of merely sitting back supinely, they may become violent, insisting on some change. But, of course, they will not know what changes should be made.

It is at this point where Georgists may have their best opportunity to get a hearing. At the present time, little or no attention is paid to us. It is true, that land value taxation is gaining increasing acceptance, but much of this is based on an attempt to set up a better system of taxation. There is little or no recognition that land value taxation is an expedient which if applied 100% has an excellent chance of creating conditions in which opportunities will outnumber people seeking such opportunities. If such occurs, the whole outlook of people will change. Instead of being aimless, people will have as many aims as there are people.

Until that time occurs, what we must do is to educate ourselves as well as we can and as many as show an interest in our work.