America the Possible



Is America the greatest? It seems harder and harder to make the case for the country’s eminence, especially when you consider that, compared to a group of twenty advanced democracies, America now has:

  • the highest poverty rate, both generally and for children
  • the largest prison population in absolute terms and per capita
  • the highest carbon dioxide emissions and the highest water consumption per capita

These are troubling facts, to say the least.

“But there’s another America,” says Gus Speth, author of last year’s two-part feature in Orion, “America the Possible.” “It’s the America we’d truly like, for our children and for ourselves.”

What does the new America—and a new American dream—look like? And how do we get there? Read Gus’s two-part feature for Orion, here and here, and check out the newly released illustrated version above.