Making America greater than ever

Donald Trump ran for president with a platform that implied the U.S. had lost its way and no longer was a great country.

While I am the first to admit that we face many issues, including high levels of debt, a continuing healthcare crisis and several significant social problems, I believe the many positives we have going for us should also be counted.

The U.S. is in a position of great economic strength we can use to solve our problems if our leaders will unify around a theme of compromise on which this great nation has been built.

Why am I so optimistic? The U.S. is one of the youngest developed nations on earth, and yet our success dwarfs that of other countries that had a big head start.

For example, the U.S. represents just 4.4 percent of the total world population, yet our economic activity represents more than 24 percent of the world’s total. This compares to China and India, which together hold 37 percent of the world’s population, but account for less than 18 percent of the global economic activity.

Don’t believe those who say the U.S. is not a leader in productivity and utilization of available resources.

Another theme of Trump’s platform was that we were losing the battle as a manufacturing power. I disagree, since the current level of manufacturing in the U.S. is at an all-time high.

According to United Nations data, the manufacturing output of the U.S. approached $2.2 trillion in 2016. While China has a total about 30 percent higher, keep in mind that China’s population is more than four times that of the U.S.

Perhaps the most exciting development is the advent of high technology drilling techniques that have led the U.S. to be effectively energy independent, and in a few years will be a significant exporter of both oil and natural gas. Estimates now place our natural gas reserves at more than 1,000 years.

The use of natural gas has allowed the production of electricity to rise, while carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants has fallen about 25 percent in the past 10 years. The U.S. oil and gas industry would rank as the ninth-largest economy in the world if the volume of sales were compared to the gross domestic product of all the countries outside the U.S.

Our vast energy reserves, the largest in the world, strengthen our position as an economic power as well as strengthen our national security. All of this occurred before Trump was elected.

Our innovations haven’t just been in energy production and smartphones. Per capita cancer deaths have fallen every year for the past 25 years, with some of the biggest gains being made against stomach, breast, prostrate and colon cancer. These reductions in deaths can be attributed to early detection technology and advances in treatment technologies.

There are many more positives that lead to the conclusion that we don’t need to make America great again. Instead, we should focus on using our strengths to make America even greater.

This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Making America greater than ever."