250-maxxing

The people, places, and things that define America, new political tribes coming, NYT/Siena's methodological revolution, the Michigan ICS is broken, mythbusting AI job loss, Britain is shifting

No. 407 | July 3, 2026

🇺🇲 America at 250: What Americans think

Happy 250th birthday to the United States of America, the country the data tells us remains No. 1 economically and militarily. Many have predicted its decline, but in recent decades every challenge from a would-be competitor, whether Japan, Europe, or China, has eventually lost steam. Numbers aside, it is a pretty great place. More than the official celebrations, the World Cup visitors marveling at our material bounty and natural beauty remind us of that.

The political decisions made in 1776, with their healthy aversion to centralized power, allowed America to fully reap the economic bounty of another product of 1776: the capitalist system envisioned by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. Centuries of entrepreneurial immigration have reinforced that advantage. Together, these factors formed natural antibodies to the socialist influence that sapped the vital spirit of many European countries. Two and a half centuries of pol…