Optimism has been the American way for a long time.
1880s, people have always thought that everything will be all right. In the 1880s, people.
in Texas would buy up big pieces of land in the middle of nowhere and put a few.
buildings, a road, and a sidewalk on it, and then just leave it. After all the work was.
finished and the workers gone, there wouldn't be a soul left there. Nobody ever used that.
so called town. Makes one wonder why people would spend money doing this. There are.
two reasons for this behavior. The first is simply that they thought of the return it can.
have. If they can make it look attractive enough, they might get the railroad to pass.
though it and it"ll be a real town, and they"d have a fortune. Although the chances of this.
happening were very minimal, people still kept doing this. It was due to the second.
reason, optimism. The people had the assumption that America will never stop booming.
America will always be the land of opportunity. If they lost their money at one place, they.
can always earn it back somewhere else. And this optimism has carried over. American.
people have been concerned with quantity rather than quality. The want for more has.
always been there. In the early days, it was more real estate, or gold. And now its other.
thing like pay or fringe benefits. But what's been happening now is that the wealth and.
the opportunity has been running out. For example from 1947 to 1965, productivity was.
increasing on average by 3.3 percent. Between 65 and 72 that decreased to 2.4 percent.
And it has been on a constant decrease ever since. Now, Americans have to think of some.
other ways to advance themselves, maybe instead of focusing on quantity, we can focus.
on quality. We need to find new frontiers to accomplish.
Response:.
This essay claims that Americans have always ached for more. Americans have.
always been optimists, they always presume that the best is going to transpire. The essay.
states a bunch of examples like Texas in the 1880s and the decades of the 70s and 80s.
