The Day After – The Dispatch

Greetings from Vancouver, Washington. We had a lovely Thanksgiving with a very large chunk of the Gavora clan. Not all Gavorii (my preferred plural form of Gavora) could attend, but it was just shy of 25, which is not bad. 

You may not have known this, but the county in which Vancouver sits—again, the American Vancouver, not the more famous one up north—was once the “Prune Capital of the World.” There were Prune Festivals, at which Prune Queens were named.  Washington, D.C., might regulate the country, but Clark County once kept the whole world regular. 

I didn’t know about any of this prune lore until yesterday, when I read a plaque on the river walk about it. It reminded me of a sign on an overpass in Union City, New Jersey: “Welcome to Northern New Jersey, Embroidery Capital of the World Since 1872.”

You might not be surprised to learn that Northern New Jersey is no longer the embroidery capital of the world. That was obvious a long time ago. 

In short, things change. 

Things also get better. 

I’ve written a lot about how we’re better off today, materially, then we were at any other time in human history. I’m not going to wade into statistics to explain why the people of Vancouver or North Jersey are better off today than they were during the days of their Great Prune Pontificate and Embroidery Empire, respectively. But trust me they are. Though it’s worth pointing out that very few of the people living in Vancouver or Union City today are descendants of the people who worked the fields or factories a century ago.

I saw this morning that Kelsey Piper, a writer for The Argument, had a piece on how people are materially better off today than in the past. It covers a lot of territory familiar to people who read my last book. It’s a good essay, but it’s even better that it’s at The Argument, a left-of-center outfit that is trying to bring some sanity and seriousness to the left. Libertarians and many conservatives have been making these sorts of arguments for decades (see Kevin Williamson’s excellent essay this week, or HumanProgress.org, or the works of Deirdre McCloskey, or listen to any of a score of episodes of EconTalk. Or read almost any edition of Capitolism). They’ve done so partly to convince the left to be more appreciative of capitalism. It’s only fitting now that parts of the right have turned on capitalism, parts of the left are picking up the baton. Better late than never and all that.

This stuff is also both necessary and welcome because I think a lot of people blame economic conditions for other problems. We confuse feelings of low social status for material deprivation, we talk about fighting “inequality” as if that’s the same thing as fighting poverty (they’re really different things). People nostalgically opine about the 1950s (or 1150s) economy when their nostalgia is really about something else entirely. I mean the average wages in the poorest state—Mississippi—are higher than the average wages in Britain, Canada, and Germany. Anybody reading this is materially and technologically better off in myriad ways than the richest person in the world a century ago.

Explaining to people how well we’re doing economically isn’t the same thing as telling them they have nothing to complain about. It might actually help people to learn to complain about the right things—and fix them. If you’re nostalgic for the economy of the 1950s, you’re not really making an economic argument at all, but a cultural and psychological one. 

Last night, one of my brothers-in-law gave a nice little two-minute sermon before we said grace. He said one of the best things about gratitude is that it chases ingratitude out of your head. He didn’t mean it necessarily in some magical sense. But literally. If you think about the things you should be thankful for, it pushes the negative stuff out of the way, at least for a little while.

Gratitude is easy—or easier—on Thanksgiving in the same way finding turkey or football on TV on Thanksgiving is easier. Taking stock and giving thanks is part of the ritual. It’s baked in, at least for many of us. 

That’s why the day after Thanksgiving is a better day for actually thinking about this stuff. It’s sort of like New Year’s Eve is the time for making resolutions, but New Year’s Day is the time for putting those resolutions to the test.   

Thinking about the things you—or all of us—should be grateful for also helps us think about the things we should truly be concerned about. 

 The girls are having a slumber party with Kirsten. Gracie is being minded by an entourage of cat-sitters. And I’ve been hanging out with my nephew and niece doggies: Bruno and Penny. 

Member Name: Jenni Mann Becker

Why I’m a Dispatch Member: I’ve always been a fan of Jonah’s work. As a former Democrat I found his writing to keep me centered on political topics. When The Dispatch launched I had just switched to Independent and decided to sign up. I longed for a news source that reported honestly about important, political topics.

Personal Details: I work as a lighting and set designer for the theater community in the Triangle area of North Carolina.

Pet’s Breed: Little Red Mutt & Komodo Dragon

Gotcha Story: We wanted another dog after our big boy, Mr. Joe the wonder Aussie, died. We visited Saving Grace in Raleigh and I have a habit of picking the shaking, pathetic dog in the corner. The little red, super short, and long-backed dog captured our hearts.

Pet’s Likes: Tennis balls. Kong balls. Bouncy balls. Obsessed with any ball. We once dumped a bag full of them in front of her and she almost shook her eyes out of their sockets trying to figure out which ball to chase.

Pet’s Dislikes: Storm drains. I think she may have been forced to watch Stephen King’s It when in the shelter. If she sees one during a walk she’ll roll over on her back and pee on herself.

Pet’s Proudest Moment: When she learned how to keep a ball in her mouth and kick additional balls with her feet around the room.

Bad Pet: When she got mad at her brother for barking at the mailman and pinned him against the wall. I had to remind her she doesn’t need to be the disciplinarian of the house.

Do you have a quadruped you’d like to nominate for Dispawtcher of the Week and catapult to stardom? Let us know about your pet by clicking here. Reminder: You must be a Dispatch member to participate.