The American Way of Life

As my client manager often puts it, if someone wants to live in a carboard box in America, he can. The concept of individual liberty is hard to digest for some nations. Coming from another democracy (India), I can understand. Not so for most countries, where they believe government intervention to "protect" the "dignity" of human life, religion, and culture. Again, coming from India, I understand them to. Since India is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, secular democracy where all religions are given equal respect by the constitution.

In America, individuals are at liberty to have the most of life. Those who wish to be patriotic, conservative, liberal, or even lethargic, they can have it all. Those with enterprise can become as rich as they can make it happen. Those who want can binge and gamble to death. The economy is consumer-driven. It thrives on individual freedom. Supply generating demand of something different all the time.

If you want meditation, yoga, ayurveda, it's fine. And if you want allopathy, workouts, and quick-fix surgeries, most welcome! Want to drive cars even if it kills the air you breathe, feel free! And if you are those environmentally-conscious, there is a bus or train stop; maybe a mile away, but there is one!

And, most importantly, society values individual freedom. And this is the part which is slightly different in India. Legislature, execute, and judiciary all thrive at being moral police also in India. Can't blame them; the majority population want them to. But that, is a different topic.

If you go by the spirit of the American way of life, some of the most vexing questions posing society do have easy, even if not-easily-acceptable answers:

- We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcome: The way America is the greatest superpower is because it's economy is closest to the law of nature. Government interventions like higher-taxation to help the  lowest class, will be a step back. I'm not talking right or wrong here, only facts. And I'm saying maybe it is ok to not be first, if the price is the health and basic necessities of your citizens.

- Abortion: The individual has the right of giving birth.

- Gay marriage: The couples involved have the right

- Gun ownership: The individual has the right to own it.

- Monopolies and too-big-to-fail: The marketplace will take care of itself. Government should not intervene.

I'm not taking sides above. This is just an extrapolation of the natural behaviors in terms of the current way of  life. If this should change, social views of the majority must also change, enough to modify current laws!