Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, I had the opportunity to work in Senegal for several months.  My very first experience in-country was that the rental vehicle wouldn’t start.  While the friendly and talkative mechanic repaired the jeep, he inquired if this was my first trip to Africa.  “No,” I replied.  “Ahhh!” he said, “then I don’t have to explain the meaning of ‘TIA’ to you.” 

But I’d never heard that term or what it meant.  When I asked, he explained, saying, “This is Africa; nothing works!”  Indeed, in my travels, it was much the same in Latin America and other places I have lived, worked, or visited back in the day.  When I returned to the U.S. it was a joy to drop a quarter into a payphone and hear a dial tone, or find that the nearest toilet always had toilet paper at hand.

But, in 2023, in Biden’s America, the acronym takes on a whole new meaning.  Last week my wife’s car wouldn’t start, and after several return visits to the dealership, the problem remained undiagnosed.  The service tech apologized and said, “it’s TIA.” I asked him what that meant, and he said, “This is America; no one knows how to fix things anymore.”  Talk about a reflective moment.

Consider recent news items reporting stories of unusual events, ones growing in frequency.  With the technology and knowledge developed over decades, stupid stuff shouldn’t happen nearly as much as it does.

Four issues help us understand how these sad scenarios came to be:

1. Lack of competency

2. Disincentives to succeed

3. Workarounds to working

4. Wokeism

Lack of Competency:  Whether we are building something new or repairing something old, too often, we can’t seem to match our accomplishments from the “old days.”  For example, the new Artemis rocketship uses 1970s space shuttle engines because of an inability to replicate the technology today.

The competency issue is vital because, without competent people, there will be fewer breakthrough technologies.  Competency is exceedingly crucial because it has the capacity to make our lives better.  The speed of breakthrough products has slowed in recent years, with a focus on incremental improvement rather than embracing the inherent risks of novel technologies that made our country wealthy and successful.

Disincentives to succeed:  Eliminating the trend toward mediocrity is likely the most crucial nugget we should glean.  We have gone from a culture of highlighting our best and brightest to flipping that winning strategy on its head as we hold back our geniuses in myriad ways.  Our capital system, taxation, government policies, social media, and even our educational systems no longer reward risk, instead insisting on playing it safe, and stifling the higher intellect students in the name of social justice and White privilege.  The downside of the promotion of mediocrity is that the risking and striving by the many, which was so much a defining aspect of America, is becoming all too rare.  Why?  Because the promotion of self — individuality — particularly if they are White, is actively discouraged and considered anti-social and anti-progressive in today’s new vision of America.

Workarounds to working:  Living off of family money, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, government grants, friends, subsidized homelessness, becoming a perpetual student, and/or working off the books all come together to allow an unprecedented number of people to fail to contribute to the continuing success and financing of our country.

There is a monthly government statistic called U-6 and another metric called Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate.  These two stats, added to the official Unemployment rate, reveal another estimated 12 million unemployed or underemployed individuals over and above the official stats.  Another important metric is people who could work but choose not to do so.  Yes, the government keeps that number as well.

When you combine all these numbers, you approach 100 million people who don’t work for a variety of reasons.  That number has risen by about 35 million in the last ten years.

Wokeism:  Ostensibly about fundamental fairness, “Wokeism” is a destructive force aimed directly at everything that made America great.  No aspect of Wokeism is productive, fair, or a natural evolution of who we are, and it contradicts family values, a strong work ethic, good race relations, and essential capitalism.  Wokeism is death, and Wokeists walk off a cliff called misdirection all too willingly.

I don’t want to live in a country where TIA, once ascribed to a dysfunctional Africa, is now used to describe us as we descend into economic and social oblivion.  This may be where the enemies of America desire us to go, but it is up to the few to triumph over a victory of Wokeism, which seems close to actualization. 

The new version of TIA is slavery in the making.  How ironic that the left’s primary tool, if realized, will inevitably bring about the enslavement of us all.  We must fight and not let that happen.  What will you do?

Allan J. Feifer is a patriot, author, businessman, and thinker.  Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.