Do Not Bet Against America
August 17, 2015
As a boy I was enthralled with the US Space Missions, and I sat up very late to watch Neil Armstrong put the first human footprint on the moon. In those days we did not have VCRs so I took my Brownie Camera with a roll of black and white film and photographed the pictures on the TV! That might have been the pivotal moment when I became enamored with America and a desire to make my future in this wonderful land of opportunity. Last month in the midst of the Greek financial crisis, and images of people standing in line to get their daily allowance of 60 Euros, I came across an article titled “NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, explained”. Pluto is the farthest destination in the history of space missions – 3 billion miles and nine years in the making. It takes 4½ hours for any data sent from Pluto to reach Earth. The signal is so faint that NASA has to pick it up using 200 foot-wide radio dishes in Australia, California and Spain. Data transmission is about 1 kilobit per second, which is about 50 times slower than a 56k modem from the 90’s.
Buckminster Fuller came up with the notion of the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”. Until 1900 human knowledge was thought to double approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today average human knowledge is doubling approximately every 13 months and, according to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours!
This is an incredible and dynamic country that in spite of being an easy target for criticism continues to demonstrate enormous generosity, to venture into the unknown, to build a greater bank of knowledge, advance itself in technology and medicine, invest in research, and show a willingness to help others with no guarantee of a return. Occasionally, we have to force ourselves to step back and, with a little bit of introspection, realize that we are truly fortunate to be born in or be allowed to come in to this great country. Yes, our competitive nature might make us self-critical, but I believe it is our way of trying to make ourselves better as individuals and as a country.
Last month we took 25 students from around the States on The Cambridge Program entitled “Money & Responsibility”, to open their eyes and realize how fortunate indeed we are. This is the 7th year we have run this program and as you might imagine it is both energizing and exhausting! Below is a video the BBC created in 2009 about the program. The range of subjects we cover spans the spectrum from credit cards, debt and budgeting to Shakespeare and whether the Arts matter, from the mathematics of money and investing to human trafficking and whether we are alone in this vast universe. There is no place quite like the 800 year old Cambridge University to gain perspective.
I am happy to be back in the States, grateful for the opportunities I have been given and excited to be a very small part of the continuing growth of this wonderful land I call home. As Warren Buffett continues to say: “America’s greatest years still lie ahead”.
Nick Hoffman
