When you know your country is really in decline....

In the 1800's, an English reporter came to the United States.  Most of Europe of course looked upon America as a vast land of opportunity.  They were also fascinated with the Native American.  While not brushing over the brusque treatment all of them received at the hands of the American Government, said reporter simply made a simple but to the point observation;  

The Indian could not just keep America as a pleasure ground. 

Well.....the Native Indian still lives on, many a tribe now rich off their ability to own and operate casino's throughout the land.  But the pleasure ground concept is alive and well.  And if one looks closely it is alive and well in your country as well.  Especially if you are French, or Italian, etc. 

Often I've complained of America as nothing more than a nation of Amazon warehouse workers.  Want a steady job?  Isn't there an Amazon warehouse near you?  America in my view has become clearly stratified, and not necessarily for the bad.  

All our dentists and doctors will someday be children of Chinese and Indian immigrants.  Their assistants simple middle class  folk with a technical degree. Delivery drivers all working class folk with a minimal high school degree.  More and more I'm seeing Americans with strange names I cannot pronounce, all second generation, on television explaining how COVID works, etc.  And they are proof  of the power of immigration.   

You see, Bubba Joe's boy in Alabama could've been a doctor too, but quite frankly, he just wasn't as talented as the son of the Indian or Chinese neighbor.  So Bubba Joe's boy will simply have to do something else.  Like go work in an Amazon warehouse.   How many Indian and Chinese American's know how to even operate a forklift?   Seeing one operate a forklift in America is as rare as an American brain surgeon with blue eyes and blond hair. 

But I digress.

But for the wealthy abroad with money to spare, America will become their destination.  

Alas, we are now a "Resort Nation".   Actually we always have been such.  One ethnic group has simply replaced another.   We have Clean Air because we no longer have factories.  The Chinese and others will flood here, with their surplus cash, sending their kids to failing private schools. Actually this has already been taking place for quite sometime.  Still, is this what a nation in decline looks like?

I remarked some time ago(look it up!), that our National Parks are all heavily populated with foreign(Chinese) tourists.   Wanna save the parks?  Yosemite and Yellowstone.....charge the "foreigners" double what you charge me. 

We are the defacto pleasure ground for all those foreign "guests".

When I was at Yellowstone, every restaurant had a Chinese sign.  A Chinese menu.  Every tourist shop needed a Chinese speaker.  However, you better let that smirk from your face fade.  Rather, it's perhaps more appropriate to ask yourself why these folks have so much money?  And you don't.

Is this the first stage of decline?  You know what the first stage is called right?  Denial. 

A vast nation with nothing in the middle to see.  It was big news when Elon Must went to Oklahoma(probably the first and last time he has been there), to scout a factory site.  The next day he came to his senses and announced it would be built in Texas. 

BTW, I still consider Musk dumb, real dumb, to have built a Tesla factory in China.  Within five years his competition will have all his blueprints as well as have mastered all his manufacturing prowess.  But back at home, as I ponder what all the ambition and desire to get rich will do to China, I wonder in turn what  our lack of energy will do to us?

Western Civilization simply doesn't think that way.

We don't raise our kids "to get rich".  The Chinese do.

I raise my daughters to "find their passion".   That takes time by the way.  And rarely creates jobs.   Or builds companies.  The Chinese don't think in terms of "spiritual development".    They think in terms of making money.   Yes many fail.  A few succeed.  Then they have kids, bring them here, and buy a house or twenty. 

I can't help but think of the parents of these children simply enjoying their lives here as they manage their real estate holdings.   My point is none of the Chinese I know here look upon America as a land of hard work.  No, not at all. Yes they have jobs, but the money they have here is not necessarily from them.  One always wonders where it comes from.....their parents?  

A dead give away of stolen money is when Chinese come from Canada.  That is, when they backdoor their way here. 

But back to my point, many Chinese look upon our shores as the land of milk and honey.  A pleasure ground to enjoy six months of the year, before heading back home.  I know of one Chinese mom that simply left her kids here, went back to China and got stuck there,  because of COVID, still unable to come out.  I have no earthly idea who is raising her kids.

Alot of folks have Chinese parents all wrong.  Many, many parents here don't think too much about their children's educational achievement, let alone future.  Yes, many do.  Many have "college consultants" for their kids.( I don't)

A few paid local Chinese graduates of Harvard to write their children's college essays.  But many just don't give a damn.   I get the sense they are here for THEMSELVES, and not for THEIR children.  Their money is here.  Kids are in paradise.  Local schools?  No problem.  

Want to follow your dream and be a philosophy major in College?  Go for it.  But when I see a Chinese studying Philosophy, that's a dead giveaway.  Case in point:  we have great friends of ours with a single child.  Their daughter came here for private school, then went to the East Coast to study at a private college.  A decent school at that.  What does she study?  Psychology.  And now she is about to graduate what is next?  A Masters Degree of course.....in Psychology.  

Her parents have property.  Their own apartment has quintupled in value since they bought it.  They have another in Huizhou just sitting there.  An empty shell.  Going on a decade now.  As for them, they are on the verge of retirement.   Soon to make not just America but the world their pleasure ground.

Next time you see a middle aged Chinese couple with a slight smile strolling down the street in your European city, don't necessarily pity them.  Rather, its ok to feel jealous.  And then ask yourself if this is what a country in decline looks like?