The U.S. is experiencing a shift toward faster innovation and change, driven by fear of China as an economic rival and frustration from younger generations inheriting a system built to protect older wealth through restrictive regulations. This anger fuels political realignment toward candidates promising to break from the status quo.
One of the fascinating trends happening in American society right now is what feels like a return to dynamicism. And dynamicism is kind of this idea of being a fast-moving society, being one that can build stuff, isn't stuck in red tape, is able to just go do things, be a great society and a great country in our minds and in the minds of others because of the things we're able to do and able to accomplish. And I think a lot of people have gotten frustrated, especially younger people who are, you know, feeling kind of stuck, feeling like it's hard to do things in this country because there's just been such an interest in maintaining the status quo. And I've been thinking about why is this happening now? What's the thing that's happening? And I think there's two reasons that it's happening. First and foremost is I think the narrative being put in the media and in other places that America is, well, has a lot of competition now. Like it got easy for a while there. You know, Russia was not leading at coming after the US for economic dominance. Japan and folks like that felt like they had their moment and then disappeared. But then China, right, has come along. And I think a lot of Americans feel, well, just kind of insecure because China keeps coming in. The narrative in the media is pretty scary about China. Like, it feels like something where the US is going to get beat. And I think a lot of people are scared of that. So I think whether that's right or wrong, I think that's motivation number one for people wanting this kind of dynamicism. It's like, hey, we have competition, we got to step it up. So there's fear there. But I think number two, which is much more subtle and a cause for this, is actually because of generational shifts. And so if you look at what's happening in the US right now, the boomers were a huge generation. Those and the millennials, right, which are these two big generations, they ultimately dominated and have the potential in the case of millennials to dominate politics in the future. But the boomers, something's happening. Like they're starting to die off. The older ones were born in '46 and they're 78 now. Like they've retired to Florida, they're leaving Congress, and we see them kind of leaving those leadership positions. And who's left? Well, my generation, Gen X, and we're in our 50s and early 60s. And then you have the millennials behind us. And those two generations together, like, there's a vibe that's happening where they're seeing these baby boomers who frankly accumulate a lot of wealth, accumulated positions in society, and then went up to Congress and passed a lot of stuff to protect all of that for themselves. And when you have a lot of wealth and you want to protect it, you don't want anybody to mess with it, well, you pass legislation that keeps people from building houses, from doing new businesses, from all that kind of stuff. And to some extent, those types of regulations and all the borrowing and everything that happened is why the US has felt pretty sclerotic, meaning kind of frozen and not making progress, just because it's basically stuck in red tape and laws and regulations that ultimately, like, just put there to help other people who are already established and not young people coming up. And I think I'll add to this, there's probably a third thing there, as I've explained this generational change, which is like a lot of people are pretty angry. You know, if you go talk to middle-aged folks and young folks, they can't afford houses. They feel like the deck has been stacked against them. And all those regulations and stuff that were passed to maintain the status quo, like it feels really frustrating. It feels like you were screwed. And, you know, the combination of that anger plus the fear of China, like, kind of creates like a pretty potent cocktail for people wanting to see change. And I think that's a lot of why you saw young people switching sides, going against different parties and longtime established candidates, and ultimately a lot of the motivation for a lot of people voting for Trump. They just wanted to see change and they wanted to see opportunity. And, uh, if you were faced with a choice of the status quo which is what the Democrats brought forward, or somebody that was going to come in and do some different stuff. Well, they chose the guy doing the different stuff, and, uh, that's where we are. So anyway, that's my explanation for American dynamicism. It's off the cuff as I walk here around Phoenix, and maybe it's something, or maybe it's not. See you later.
