1) Why start with naysayers?
Because Dowd’s apparent purpose in writing this essay is to argue against what he sees as a widespread but incorrect view of the future of the United States, students will probably find it effective that he opens by laying out the positions of his opposition, the naysayers.
The notion that China's booming economy is a threat to US primacy. How does he combat this?
"THE US is adding twice as much in absolute terms to global output" as China
--gap in per capita income (44,244 in the US v 2069 in China)
*** who is responsible for this economic output?
the american worker, who is growing ever more productive
US share of global productivity "exceeds the highest share of global output ever acheived by Britain by a facotr of more than 2"
We can withstand a lot.
--lost an estimated 500 billion as a result of 9/11.
2) Why would Katrina expose the US to be a "hollow superpower"?
3) What are some things he points to in order to show America is not in decline?
--enormous economy, 20 percent of global output
--US economy will be twice the size of Europe's by 2021.
How does this essay differ from the one we read for yesterday?
--one focuses on strengths, the other, on weaknesses
Dowd focuses on the country’s economic strengths, using statistics concerning U.S. spending, GDP, worldwide corporate dominance, and so forth to support his claim that America is still—and will continue to be—the preeminent global force. Herbert, on the other hand, is more concerned with American values and what he sees as an alarming shift away from a fundamental belief in social and economic justice and the rule of law to indifference toward the current great disparities within the country in terms of distribution of wealth, access to education, opportunities to succeed, and so forth as well as a growing tolerance toward abuses of power within the criminal justice system and the government as a whole. His evidence grows primarily out of his personal experience as a reporter and commentator who has traveled the country interviewing those he feels are suffering most from this state of affairs.
1. Assess Dowd’s use of economic statistics in making his argument. They seem to present an impressive picture of American prosperity, but are there other ways of interpreting the numbers? Is there information he doesn’t present that might weaken his case? How in your view does Dowd use the concept of a U.S. “decline”? What other types of decline does he not consider, if any?
Dowd’s statistical evidence seems convincing on the surface, obviously. But a sharp economic downturn in the year after the essay was published suggests that perhaps his views were overly optimistic. As for the concept of a U.S. decline, there are many on the right and the left who see a decline in American values, though for different reasons. And in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and the Bush administration’s detention of suspected terrorists without trial and apparent use of torture, there were many around the world who felt that the country’s moral standing internationally was in decline.
What does it mean to say, the hidden hand of the economy does not work without a hidden fist.
Why does this argument matter?
Dowd would probably say that this argument matters because the idea that the United States is in decline globally might become a self-fulfilling prophecy, particularly if the powers that be in other countries take this idea at face value and allow it to govern their relations with the country. Writing for a conservative readership, Dowd likely feels this goes without saying.
