But country and citizen aren't the only relevant entities. There are also state and municipal governments. And corporate entities. If those other entities make rules and conditions that create a framework within which individual choices are constrained and made, then the individual is no longer sovereign. Individuals don't choose all sorts of things, like the air we breathe or the water we drink or even the schools and educational choices that are available to us or our children. The neighborhoods that we can afford almost always determine those things. And history has a lot to do with that. In this country, race has often had something to do with that. And pointing to individuals who have "made it out" is silly. Of course individuals have overcome their birth circumstances. But it cannot be the case that every individual could have done so. The way we structure and reward work makes this so. That isn't an "individual" thing, it is a way society is organized thing. Which is a major difference between the US and virtually every other developed country in the world. They recognize that and we don't, we pretend that individuals shape their circumstances far more than they do, have far more control than they do. Which is NOT to say that individuals have no control or responsibility.
Anyway, this is getting into the weeds. I woke up too early, need more sleep, and as I said in a different context, these issues are way too complex to really discuss in a forum like this one.
EDIT: I was about to close the computer when another analogy occurred to me. In the US, we reward the CEO if the stock price goes up, pretending that he and other executives took actions that made it happen. When actually stock prices are only in small part determined by what the CEO did, the overall conditions of the economy, the sector that the company is in and the market itself are far more important. That isn't to say that the actions of the CEO aren't important or that he/she can't wreck a company with the choices that they make or make it better by those choices, but it is to say that they aren't all important and that there are plenty of other factors that went into the success of the company. |
