By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-24 15:45:50 | Updated at 2024-12-25 04:23:09
12 hours ago
Merry Christmas: What Christmas Reindeer Antlers Say About America
Flopping Aces ^ | 12-24-24 | Vince
Posted on 12/24/2024 7:43:14 AM PST by Starman417
I first wrote this in 2010 and I'm considering making it my annual Christmas post.
I republished it in 2017 as a response to a study I read: Study: American Kids Lack Entrepreneurial Spirit. That's like a dagger to the heart to someone who knows a bit of history and understands that the American free market has driven more prosperity and pulled more people out of poverty than any system ever in human history. The loss of American entrepreneurial spirit for the world would be like the sun running out of hydrogen. It won't implode immediately, but for freedom and prosperity, the end is nigh. Well, here's my pinprick of an attempt to maybe ignite a bit of entrepreneurial spirit in someone, somewhere... and gratitude for the prosperity the American system has provided over these last 240 years... Some of the references may be dated (Like Groupon, which was a big deal back in 2010) but the point remains valid.
One last note, for the budding entrepreneur out there or the mature one, there may be no better present in the world than Harold Evan's "They Made America; From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine". It's nothing short of brilliant.
What Christmas Reindeer Antlers Say About America
My wife is from France. In the four years we were on opposite sides of the ocean before we got married I had the good fortune to be able to visit the country a number of times. For much of that time, I was working at Outback Steakhouse and always envisioned opening a unit in Paris. (I know, for most people that’s epicurean heresy, but consider the source… my favorite food is McDonalds and M&Ms…) Nonetheless, at Outback the fundamental idea was that we would prepare your food any way you wanted. You could have your salad dressing on the side, your Bloomin’ Onion cooked with flour, or you could have your steak extra well done. Whatever it was, we wanted you to be happy with your meal. When I mentioned the idea to my wife she said it would never fly because the idea of the customer being in charge of anything in France is largely unheard of, particularly as it relates to restaurants. The rule is: that chefs are trained to know what works with food so you get what they give you and you like it.
Not long after that, I had another idea that equally befuddled her. Licensed apparel is a multi-billion dollar business in the United States and around the world – think NY Yankee hats or Manchester United shirts. One of the biggest sectors of that industry here in the US is NCAA (college) licensed apparel. One day I suggested we think about going into the licensed apparel business and selling shirts, hats, etc. for French colleges. She was puzzled. “Why would anyone want to buy a shirt with their college’s name on it?” I tried to explain the whole college rivalry, and pride in your school deal to her and it just wasn’t clicking. She told me that such a business would likely not find a market in France because there is largely no such thing as school sports & spirit and French people would never understand the point. (The University of Paris tee shirts that are sold throughout the city are for tourists.) For the French, going to college is expected to be four years of focus and study with very little extracurricular activity of any sort, organized or otherwise. Simply put, it’s all work and very little fun and who wants to wear a shirt reminding them of that?
I thought about these two episodes recently when I saw a car with some reindeer antlers sticking up out of the door of a passing car. In a moment the subject of this column came to me: The beauty of America is the fact that anything and everything is possible here. When you peel back everything else, America is a place of possibilities. Americans by their very nature are a rebellious sort. From breaking with King George to Manifest Destiny to heading to the moon, America has always been a place where big things can and do happen. More importantly, however, it’s also a place where everyday, seemingly inconsequential things can happen. What I mean by that is that it is not only the politician, the successful businessman, or the wealthy heiress who can set out to pursue some grand design… it’s also the guy next door, the guy at the coffee shop, or the guy you knew in 3rd grade who can do something that changes the world, or maybe just his little corner of it.
America is a place where people feel that if they can imagine it, they can make it come true. Although that doesn’t always lead to success, the aggregate impact of all that creativity on the country is tremendous. Think about how many things that you know of that are so fundamentally unimportant from the perspective of surviving in this world but impacted the lives of the people who invented them or used them. Silly Bandz. The Snuggie. College apparel. A dozen flavors of Coke. Personalized M&Ms. Car wrap advertising. Pet manicures. Cheesehead hats. QVC. Having it your way at Burger King. McMansions. The antlers are the perfect example. They’re utterly frivolous, but they let people express the fun side of Christmas and maybe make others smile as well. Not earth-changing but certainly a net positive, particularly for whoever created and sells them.
The list goes on and on. And this is not an exercise in navel-gazing. Just the opposite actually. It’s recognizing and appreciating the fact that America is a truly unique place and Americans are a unique people. Not because they are any better or worse than anyone else, but because they have largely bought into the notion that in America anybody can have an idea and do something with it – although regrettably, the system is increasingly suffocating the pervasiveness of that notion.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: christmas; entrepreneurship
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1 posted on 12/24/2024 7:43:14 AM PST by Starman417
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