By LEE BALLARD

For almost 100 years, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, escaped slaves from the U.S. South fled to Canada, perhaps as many as 30,000 of them.

In Canada, they were free. They could vote and own property. Canada never had institutionalized segregation of the races. 

The United States had to endure a Civil War and 70 years of Jim Crow before we were that advanced.

An idea called “American exceptionalism” came out of our Revolution and western expansion.  Americans and Europeans alike noted our uniqueness. 

As Charles Murray, a conservative at the American Enterprise Institute, puts it in a recent book:  “American exceptionalism is a fact of America’s past, not something that you can choose whether to ‘believe in’ any more than you can choose whether to ‘believe in’ the battle of Gettysburg.” 

But Murray goes on to say:  “American exceptionalism refers to qualities that were first observed in the opening century of our history. There’s no reason why they necessarily still apply today. The extent to which they still apply is an empirical question.”

I spent too many years in the Third World as a missionary to be a big believer in American exceptionalism today.  I experienced very different cultures in those years, and when I returned home, I was able to see America more objectively. 

We’re spectacular in supporting liberty in the world and in answering the call of disaster, as we did in the Philippine typhoon.  But we’re not the country we were at our founding.  Seventy percent of us think our country is on the wrong track – and I agree. There’s an intuition that the shine is coming off the city on a hill.

Forbes reported October 29 that a nonpartisan think tank, Legatum Institute, had studied 142 countries for its “Prosperity Index.”  Forbes headlined the article, “The World’s Happiest (and Saddest) Countries.” 

Their criteria for ranking relative prosperity:  “countries that enjoy peace, freedom, good healthcare, quality education, a functioning political system and plenty of opportunity.”

I read the criteria and said, “Uh-oh, we’re in trouble.”

And indeed the United States didn’t crack the Top Ten.  Number one?  Norway.  Number two:  Switzerland.  Number three…Canada.  That’s right, Canada, our neighbor to the north that Americans tend to discount as inferior.  They apparently meet the criteria a lot better than we do.

The rest of the Top Ten, in order:  Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Netherlands, Luxembourg.  We’re number 11.

To me, these countries have in common that their people are not worried.  They are well-educated.  They don’t fear sickness because of national healthcare.  They don’t fear old age.  They respect democracy; they aren’t intent on blocking their opponents’ success. 

America is dysfunctional in our governing system.  Inequality between classes is growing.  We spend and spend on our military over the needs of our people.  And of course we don’t have universal healthcare.  Americans worry.

These “happy” countries pay a lot more taxes than we do, and their taxes pay for their good life.

It’s my view that most American troubles have their roots in the extreme hatred American conservatives have toward taxation.  Our governments stumble along trying to get by with less and less money.  Here in North Carolina our education at every level suffers because conservatives control our state budget.

Before we automatically say we’re “the greatest country on earth,” we should give some hard looks at ourselves.  We’re certainly the most powerful superpower in the world.  But the greatest country?

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Lee Ballard lives in Mars Hill.