Of the world’s top ten billionaires, eight of them call America home.
This is no coincidence.
America is the best place on earth for someone with nothing to achieve success and bring incredible ideas to fruition.
But even more than our business-friendly atmosphere and culture of dreaming big, it's our meritocratic ideals that have enabled native-born citizens and immigrants alike to find higher than average success here than they would in any other country.
Unfortunately, the meritocratic ideals on which our country was Founded are under attack.
America’s education system has been gradually watered down over the years; excellence in education is no longer encouraged, or even really required to pass onto the next grade level.
Admission standards at top schools are being lowered across the board, or even done away with completely under the guise of "fairness."
The illegal and unfettered immigration sanctioned by the Biden administration is also tearing at the threads of our meritocratic system.
Throughout much of America’s history, decisions about whom to let into the country have been made prudently, according to the needs of our country and citizens first.
The damage done to American border communities paints a picture of a country whose citizens are suffering and literally dying because those in charge refuse to restrict immigration at the southern border.
Laws passed to curb discrimination following the civil rights movement have also been used to wipe out meritocracy, creating new, unintended forms of discrimination in our businesses and facilitating the "HR-ification" of American society.
Similarly, with the rise in popularity of ESG investing standards, diversity quotas have supplanted talent and competence as the virtue to focus on when it comes to hiring and promoting.
Our ever-expanding federal government also poses a threat to meritocracy because it positions the government as the fixer to every single one of our problems.
Crony capitalism strangles innovation and straps small businesses by withholding from them the same opportunities — whether through tax cuts or subsidies — offered to big businesses.
Last but not least, we have a sick popular culture, which is especially devastating to the meritocratic ideals established at our country’s Founding.
Our popular culture slips into every area of American life the lie that our country is systemically oppressive and lets only certain people succeed.
We see just how much these lies have influenced the attitudes of our nation’s youth and burdened them with the weight of the world. So many of our young people grow up thinking that they need to fundamentally transform our country.
We have more Greta Thunbergs and "wannabe" political activists than we have people who want to make or do something truly beneficial for society.
At every corner, young Americans are dogged by negative voices telling them that they might as well not even try to excel, despite the reality that America is the only country in the world that truly lends itself to risk taking, innovating, and improving one’s life while simultaneously helping others.
While our institutions are manufacturing a crisis of anger and despair in our youth, the rest of us need to think about what we can give them instead.
Will we leave our children with the mentality that they can do anything they set their mind to? Will we raise them to believe that they have something great to offer their fellow countrymen and that our nation is uniquely positioned to help them thrive?
Or, will we allow them to wallow and raise them to believe that everything in the system has been set out against them since birth?
In my new book, "America in Perspective," coauthored with businessman and founder of Teton Capital, David Sokol, we write against the popular narrative that the American Dream is no longer attainable.
We examine America’s exceptional history and remarkable advancement toward equal rights and freedom for all — two feats that have been made possible because of our country’s ability to self-heal, create laws through consensus, and embrace meritocracy — to remind readers that the American Dream is not lost, but that it is in dire need of being recovered, protected, and celebrated.
If we don’t do these three things for the American Dream, then we are no better than the ones who are actively trying to kill it. Our brightest days are still ahead, but only if we are willing to fight for them.
Adam Brandon is the president of FreedomWorks and the author (with David Sokol) of "America in Perspective." Read Adam Brandon's Reports — More Here.
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