America. $&#* Yeah!

I've been having conversations with various different people over the past few months about the state of America: our education system, economy, corporations, tax law, and politics.  One trend I'm seeing from the people I have conversations with (and both on TV and online articles) is that people are very pessimistic.

I'm not pessimistic.  I'm very optimistic.

Maybe we don't have the highest ranking education system.  Maybe we're outsourcing a lot of jobs to India and China.  Maybe our political system is fractured and uncooperative.  Maybe all this is true.

But you know what?  Everyone outside North America, even if only slightly, is envious of us.  Maybe they're not envious of all our things, but we have something that's better, worth being envious of.

We have the best sports leagues (NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA, and PGA).  We have THE financial market (Wall St.).  We have the best higher education system (everyone knows Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale, heck even my alma mater RPI).  We have the biggest, most high tech companies (Google, Facebook, IBM, Apple, and Intel).

Almost all of these things that we have, that are the best, are spreading world wide.  It's a global economy and in order to grow, it's required.  But they all started here and for the most part are based here, in the USA.

This is the reason so many people still flock to the US.  We're still the land of opportunity, of the free, and where dreams can come true.  It's why we have an illegal immigrant "problem."  So many people want so badly to come here that they're willing to break the law, hide, and do jobs for very little pay with horrid work conditions.

Stop being pessimistic.  It'll only hold you back from greatness, especially in America.