What is American Metrics
I’m Robert Ritz, and the central question of this Substack publication is:
Is life in America getting better or worse?
People usually say things are getting worse. Housing is pitifully unaffordable even for wealthy Americans. The middle class is disappearing. Families are finding upward mobility harder than ever. Others say the country is less safe, less propserous, and of course less functional than it was a few decades or half a century ago.
Some of those claims are true in some respects. Some are exaggerated or flat wrong. Most are complicated in a way that makes peoples eyes roll at dinner parties.
American Metrics is where I will try to sort it all out, hopefully in a way that will engage you rather than putting you to sleep.
I’m particularly interested in how today’s America compares to decades past, and the perennial claim that everything is worse today. Some things certainly are worse, others are better, or just different.
The word “metrics” is in the title, and that is by design. I’m a firm believer in, “you are what you measure”. It is a common saying in business, and I think this works just as well in politics and in society. The things we measure are often poor proxies for the quality of our actual lives, and I will endeavor to make some new metrics from time to time that hopefully work better.
You can expect 2 posts per week, with one longer dive into a topic, and one shorter chart of the week type model. I may sprinkle hot takes, which will hopefully be supported by data, here and there. I’m a firm believer in strong opinions which are weakly held, and I welcome differing opinions.
Why should I become a subscriber?
Of course, it helps a lot if you subscribe! By subscribing you are supporting this little endeavor to better understand America through its data. Also, by subscribing you will receive every new post in your email. This will help you see the content without remembering to check Substack.
I don’t yet have paid subscriptions set up, but if you would like to pledge a founding subscription you can do so here.
Who is Robert Ritz?
I’m an American who has spent the last thirteen years looking at his own country from the outside.
I live in Mongolia. Before moving here I worked as a management consultant, and right out of college as a very junior staff member for a Member of Congress. I moved here mostly for love and partly because I was bored with corporate life in the US.
I’ve spent the years since I moved building things. My wife and I started a university focused on business, a fine-jewelry retailer, and a cut-to-measure furniture factory.
These are very different businesses, and the constant in my approach to them has been data. I’m a very data driven person. When I moved to Mongolia in 2013 I came to understand the country through its data. I learned how things work beneath the surface, and how the stories people tell are not always grounded in reality. American Metrics is me pointing that same lens back at the country I left.
As I reframe my life back towards the United States, I feel a bit like an outsider again. The policy debates I used to know so well have moved on. The issues are familiar, but somehow new again. I hope the distance is useful. I have few settled opinions about America today. I strongly believe in American democracy, and I strongly believe in building goodwill *between* the American people. I also believe in the free market and that, generally speaking, the government should get involved as little as possible.
Benjamin Franklin said it very well:
“...these disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.”
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Chapter XII
I hope this spirit will flow through American Metrics. I will promote evidence before argument, curiosity before dogma, and always enough humility to change my mind.
