Shaun
Flanagan Posted: Jul 14, 2020 12:01 AM
The opinions expressed
by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of
Townhall.com.
The United States is one of the world’s economic
powerhouses. It is open, with strong infrastructure and competitive markets, and
its productive capacity is higher than almost all similar countries. But
genuine prosperity is about far more than a society’s economy or an
individual’s wealth; it represents an environment in which everybody is able to
reach their full potential and aspire to the American Dream. The most
recent Legatum Prosperity IndexTM shows
that the U.S. underperforms in areas such as safety and security, health, and
living conditions, acting as barriers to this aspiration. Why?
The United States Prosperity Index
(USPI) was developed to ascertain why America’s undeniable
economic success is not translating into social wellbeing for Americans, and why
its prosperity is not evenly distributed across the country. The USPI provides
a comprehensive picture of the institutional, economic, and social aspects of
prosperity for all 50 states of the Union plus Washington D.C. It covers the 10
years up to early 2020, reflecting the situation before the coronavirus
pandemic struck, and is, therefore, a helpful lens through which to consider
the various dimensions and effects of the virus—from the transmission and the
health response to resilience through digital connectivity and social capital,
as well as fiscal resilience to the economic impacts.
In general, it is the most densely populated, well-connected
areas of the U.S. that have been most impacted by the virus. Strong
infrastructure, and particularly a robust transport system, provides
significant economic benefits, enabling goods, people, and ideas to come into
and spread around the country. But this same infrastructure can also be a
transmission vehicle for pathogens, as demonstrated in New York City this year.
It was in and from NYC that the outbreak grew as infected people arrived from
outside the country and journeyed on to areas such as Ohio, Wisconsin,
Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, and the West Coast.
The quality of the healthcare system and its ability to
respond to the pandemic has been a critical factor in local responses to the virus.
The experience of Washington state, which is ranked highly in the USPI for its
care systems, is instructive—although Seattle was home to the first case of the
virus in the country, the Governor was able to dismantle an emergency field
hospital that had been set up in the city because it was not needed and send
hundreds of ventilators back to the Strategic National Stockpile. Meanwhile, in
Massachusetts, which ranks 1st in the USPI for preventative
interventions, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has been at the
forefront of the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
In addition to the health response, the social measures
taken to contain the virus, such as stay-at-home orders and distancing
guidelines, elicited a wide range of reactions and responses across the U.S. In
general, authorities in places where there is a high degree of confidence in
institutions find it easier to dial measures up and down as required to protect
public health. Many areas where institutional trust is low, such as California,
Ohio, and Oregon, have seen large protests and widespread acts of defiance
against lockdown restrictions.
In a time of forced isolation, people become more reliant on
a combination of social networks and digital connectedness. However, these do
not often coincide—people living in more densely populated cities are much more
likely to have strong broadband connections and high rates of smartphone
ownership than those living in rural areas, but less likely to have strong
connections with neighbors.
Furthermore, those states and cities with stronger economic
quality, and in particular fiscal sustainability, which provides the resilience
needed to deal with economic shocks, will be better placed to handle the
increasingly important financial consequences of the pandemic, as tax revenues
from residents and businesses decline.
The USPI illustrates those areas of the country that have
been more vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus and more resilient to its
health and socio-economic impacts. It can also help frame an agenda through
which states and cities can address the challenges they’re facing so they can
emerge even more prosperous in a post-COVID world.
There is much to be hopeful about when considering
prosperity in the U.S. Its high global ranking and historic improvement will
provide a strong foundation upon which to build a recovery. But policymakers
and influencers must recognize the interconnectedness of the many different
elements of prosperity and focus on the broader implications of institutional,
economic, and social policies. Only by utilizing such a holistic approach, as
framed through the Index but supplemented with local insight and demographic
data, can policymakers develop and target interventions that will lead to
increased prosperity for all Americans.
—Shaun Flanagan is the Director of the Centre for Metrics at
the Legatum Institute in London
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