A few years ago I had a group of friends at my house one evening for dinner. Following dinner, and with a good bottle of wine, we sat at the table and discussed the good old USA until the wee hours.
What made this a little unusual is one person was from Germany, he and his family had escaped the East ahead of the Russian army then were DP's in the West until coming to the US in 1955. He was a naturalized citizen. One was a scientist from Switzerland in the US on a work visa and working for the USDA. One was an independent businessman who was from Lebanon and held both Lebanese and French citizenship was her legally and owned three businesses between Wenatchee and Seattle. All spoke English as well as their native language. They all also had at least one other language in common and one spoke four languages. All had journeyed home at least once in the previous 24 months (and would again many times but kept coming back)
There was a lot of discussion, much of it critical about the actions of the our government and Americans in general... mostly how we can be real boorish and assume everyone else should agree with us because we are right. However as the evening wore on there was a lot of very interesting discussion that surprised me.
Somehting everyone agreed on was we may have flaws as a nation (most do) but we had been on the right side of the issues mostly and the world in general was a better place because we were around.
Another point of agreement was that they were appreciative of how easy it is to move around, coast to coast, and state to state (this was just prior to the EU).
Another thing they all really applauded was how easy it is (comparatively) to own and sell property. How they all could buy a house or sell a house or commercial property. Develop land and dream with relatively minimal government intrusion (though there is certainly more today still it is possible).
But the final point that literally drew complements from every one was that we are free to fail... yes fail. becasue of that people do a better job and therefore succeed. I thought this last was a interesting perspective...I had expected "to do anything" or "to succeed' but nope fail... of course no one intends to fail. It is a consequence of bad ideas or management or timing. unfortunately, today consequences are becoming a thing of the past...
Finally there was discussion about our founding documents and what they have meant to the world.
But to "fail" who would have thought...?
Happy 4th!
Perrin Corell, Broker
Century 21 Exclusively
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