On American Exceptionalism...

You know that many Americans, if not most, believe that the United States is unique. This goes hand in hand with Manifest Destiny. Well, I am here to tell you that it is starting to die. No, not dying fast enough for my taste, and don't expect this to to the way of the dodo in Popular Culture for a while. Yet, here I am doing research in US Economic History and one of the pillars of this thinking in US Economic History is starting to crumble.

This is called the Habbakut Hypothesis. It simply says that the US industrialized early because managers needed machines since we had very expensive labor. Never mind that this goes against the grain of every other developing economy in the modern era... (We are special after all) Well some historians have decided to actually look under the hood, and do things like heavy statistics. What they have found is that this conclusion, at least for the Grain Belt (the Northern States for example Illinois) relied on cheap labor, that was attracted from the country side to the cities. If this sounds familiar, well it should. This is the exact same pattern we are seeing in China right now... especially in places like Shanghai.

No we are not alone... ain't that grand? But yes, this is starting to die on the vine.

And if any of you wants to go get this heavy readying, here is a source for you.

The Foundation of the Modern Economy: Agriculture and the Costs of Labor in the United States and England 1800-60
Carville Earle and Robert Hoffman
The American Historical Review, Vol 85, n 5 (Dec 1980) 1055-94

And yes it is sad that it is not dying faster, given that them lib'rul professors have been at this for over almost three decades.

I promised that I would share early things as I keep at this.

a slow drop into a second-rate country where the standard of living decreases across the board, or perhaps a "revolution" or some large civil disturbance.

And what comes after?

Thanks for the reference, interesting information.

but what is starting to go away is the sense that we are unique or special. That is what is starting to die, and it goes hand in hand with being a very reluctant empire.

Mind it, this is still prevalent in the popular culture, part and parcel of what it is to be American at a basic level... but once academics start speaking a different language it will trickle down into the masses... the question is how long.

Now as the US as am Empire, it will die, all Empires do, and in their death throes usually there is a lower standard of living, that might be temporary or permanent, depends on each Empire. This ranges from oh Rome that went the way of the dodo and the dark ages... all the way to the Russian Empire, when the USSR dissolved it was rough, and it still is rough for lower classes. But in general most people have been able to more or less maintain where they were.

by Habakkuk's son, article by Marshall Auerback, talks abut the dangers of empire loving vs making sure your industrial base is secure, and notes that we did better when labor was paid more...

http://www.newdeal20.org/2009/05/29/eerie-parallels-between-soviet-planned-economy-and-american-capitalism-2049/

Might be interesting though you may have already seen it.

Thanks.

Just saved it on Evernote

most people have a much more expansive definition of American Exceptionalism than the specific point you rae making.

as to the Habakut hypothesis that has been one of the cornerstones of this. One of the three legs in the stool, as it were. Granted, that is a leg that is better seen and studied in the rarefied fields of academia... hell I may have to go back to school to get a refresher in algebra and then a statistics course.