Patriotism

In the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letters, patriotism surfaces as Warren Buffett’s recurring optimism about the long-run American economy. Tagged against a passage where Buffett urges readers not to be spooked by deficits or doom-mongering, he notes that “throughout my lifetime, politicians and pundits have constantly moaned about terrifying problems facing America. Yet our citizens now live an astonishing six times better than when I was born.” The framing credits “the American system for unleashing human potential — a system that has worked wonders for over two centuries despite frequent interruptions for recessions and even a Civil War.”

For Buffett this is less flag-waving than an investing thesis: long-term faith in American productivity and human potential as the bedrock reason to stay invested and ignore the “prophets of doom.”

A more pessimistic data point comes from Noah Smith’s The American Age Was The Human Age: as of mid-2026, Americans report less pride in their nation than people in any other major world region — a reversal from America’s historically unusual patriotism, and part of Smith’s broader argument that political factions are now organized more around mutual hatred than any positive vision of the country’s future.

Where this appears

• Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letters — Buffett’s optimism about the long-run American system as a counter to deficit fears and doom-mongering
• The American Age Was The Human Age — Americans now less patriotic than any other major world region, per Smith’s 250th-anniversary essay