From "The Declining Middle", by James Lardner, in The New Yorker, May 3, 1993 "Vice President Al Gore, in a speech earlier this year, invited the American automobile industry to dream of becoming 'dominant' again. The Vice-President, like the President, is a baby boomer. When people of their generation think of good times, they instinctively imagine a return to America's postwar glory, but such a picture may be a setup for fresh disappointment. A more realistic national objective for now might be a secure footing in the First World; the United States could do worse than to learn to be just another advanced industrial nation, if that status brought such blessings as universal health care, long vacations, and decent jobs for people without special advantages--things that Western Europe and Japan take for granted and we now conspicuously lack."