FREEDOM IN THE TWENTY- FIRST CENTURY ★^1151the twentieth century also witnessed the death of uncounted millions in wars
and genocides and the widespread degradation of the natural environment, the
underside of progress.
Exceptional America
In the early twenty- first century, people in the United States lived longer and
healthier lives compared with previous generations, and they enjoyed a level
of material comfort unimagined a century before. In 1900, the average annual
income was $3,000 in today’s dollars. The typical American had no indoor
plumbing, had no telephone or car, and had not graduated from high school. As
late as 1940, one- third of American households did not have running water. In
2013, health conditions had improved so much that the average life expectancy
for men had risen to seventy- six and for women to eighty- one (from forty- six
and forty- eight in 1900). More than 21 million Americans attended college in
2014, more than three times the figure for 1960.
In 2010, more than one American in seven was older than sixty- five. Cer-
tain to continue rising in the twenty- first century, this figure sparked worries
about the future cost of health care and the economic stability of the Social
Security system. But it also suggested that people would enjoy far longer and
more productive periods of retirement than in the past. On the other hand,
poverty, income inequality, and infant mortality in the United States consider-
ably exceeded that of other economically advanced countries, and fewer than
10 percent of workers in private firms belonged to unions, a figure not seen
since the nineteenth century.
Many of the changes affecting American life, such as the transformed role
of women, the better health and longer lifespan of the population, the spread of
suburbanization, and the decline of industrial employment, have taken place
in all economically advanced societies. In other ways, however, the United
States at the dawn of the twenty- first century differed sharply from other devel-
oped countries. Prevailing ideas of freedom in the United States seemed more
attuned to individual advancement than to broad social welfare. In 2003, when
asked whether it was more important for the government to guarantee freedom
from want or freedom to pursue individual goals, only 35 percent of Americans
selected freedom from want, as opposed to 58 percent in Germany, 62 percent
in France and Great Britain, and 65 percent in Italy. The United States was a far
more religious country. Sixty percent of Americans agreed with the statement,
“Religion plays a very important part in my life,” while the comparable figure
was 32 percent in Britain, 26 percent in Italy, and only 11 percent in France. One
in three Americans said he or she believed in the literal truth of the Bible, and
half that the United States enjoys “special protection from God.” Religion and
What were the prevailing ideas of American freedom at the beginning of the 21st century?