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Beyond the 'fiscal cliff': 6 reasons to be optimistic about America's future

As Americans take stock of 2012 and gear up for 2013, it's tempting to adopt "decline think" about the country, especially since there is still no deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of steep budget cuts and tax increases. But here are six reasons Americans should still be optimistic about their future.

6. America has it better than many others

However many challenges America faces, they are not as severe as those confronting others. This is not to delight in schadenfreude, a sentiment both morally perverse and strategically misguided. But it provides context.

Across the Atlantic, for instance, population decline, anemic growth, and resurgent nationalism challenge the European Union's dream of cohesion.

Russia, once an imperial power, faces a population decline of 25 percent by midcentury, and the strategic leverage from its gas reserves is likely to diminish as North America's supply increases.

As for China, consider just a few of the challenges with which the new president, Xi Jinping, and his successors will have to grapple – a huge influx of the population to cities, a sharp drop in the working-age population, costly environmental degradation, an export-dependent economy, and nervous neighbors.

Going forward, it would be useful to recall Richard Nixon's rebuttal to the declinists of his time. He advised Americans: "Don't let the problem of the moment obscure the great things that are going on in this country."

Ali Wyne is an associate of the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a contributing analyst at Wikistrat. Follow him on Big Think, Twitter (@Ali_Wyne), and Facebook.

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Mark Sappenfield
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