Accentuating the positive

Since I write a lot here about things going wrong, it's worth noting when there are positive trends and developments, too. To wit:

As part of a project announced Tuesday, {Google} and its philanthropic arm will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy such as wind and the sun.

If Google realizes its goal, the cost of solar power should fall by 25 to 50 percent, co-founder Larry Page said in an interview...

Google's headquarters already draws some of its power from one of the country's biggest solar power installations...

Google aims to produce one gigabyte of power from renewable energy at prices below the rates of electricity generated at coal-burning plants. One gigabyte of power would be enough to supply the needs of a city the size of San Francisco.

Page predicted the goal could be reached in a matter of "years, not decades."

I sympathize with those who think government should orchestrate a "Manhattan Project" aimed at renewable energy independence. I still think, however, that private efforts like the one above are likely to yield greater success. Google won't keep wasting money on fruitless ventures. Uncle Sam can hardly say the same. Still, if Sam also got serious about energy, it would help, however inefficiently.

On another front:

A majority of black Americans blame individual failings -- not racial prejudice -- for the lack of economic progress by lower-income African Americans, according to a survey released Tuesday -- a significant change in attitudes from the early 1990s...

Overall, the survey found that there has been a convergence of values held by blacks and whites. For instance, a majority of both groups say that rap and hip-hop music have had a negative influence on society. "Blacks and whites have become more culturally integrated and, therefore, less-affluent blacks feel more estranged," Kohut said.

One indicator of that values convergence is the increasing effort by people like Bill Cosby to point out how dysfunctional family structures, poor choices and self-imposed cultural ghettos have harmed the ability of blacks to achieve their full potential in the broader society. Certainly there are still racists and discrimination does still occur. But this isn't the 1950s anymore, and any group of Americans is better off taking individual responsibility for its own advancement rather than blaming some ever-present "other" out to get them. Study after study has confirmed the same thing: those who finish school, wait to get married, and stay together with the children, are generally more prosperous than those who don't. Regardless whether one sees that as vindication of the Biblical model (as I do), it's still the best plan for success out there. Radicals and socialists have often attacked "bourgeois morality." In doing so, they cut off their constituents from future success and instead encouraged a culture of victimhood. It's good to see evidence this trend may be reversing.