“She is the prom queen I'm in the marching band
She is a cheerleader I'm sitting in the stands
She gets the top bunk. I'm sleeping on the floor
She's Miss America and I'm just the girl next door”
- Saving Jane

It all starts in high school. There is a small group who are popular and the rest who are not.

The outsiders go through life resenting the insiders. 

"The Girl Next Door" is climbing the Billboard charts. The band is Saving Jane is hot as they were able to capture class envy in a 3 minute song. I play the song constantly and it connects with anyone whose ever been on the outside.

I've always been an outsider. Most of my friends are trial lawyers and journalists, which are classic outsider fields. 

Outsiders go into journalism. Insiders go into public relations.

That is the way it always works. 

It is easy to extrapolate the high school world to what happens in the larger world. When I think of Americans as the ultimate insiders, It make me understand why others would resent the privileges Americans have.

Suddenly, I realize I am an insider. I am well fed and have economic opportunity, I can vote for my leaders and do it without being shot at. 

There is line in the song that says, "Everybody loves her but I just want to hit her".

It describes how many people feel about Americans.

Like the "Miss America " of the song, most Americans are clueless about world resentment, anger and envy. 

I've not traveled extensively and don't really know what other people think of Americans. I suspect they are not crazy about us.

It's been a long time since another country sent a gift like the Statute of Liberty. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the sequel. 

Especially from France .

I doubt popular kids in high school really thought about why they were popular. It just happened. In many ways, it cursed the rest of their lives. 

Several years ago, I read a book called, "Is There Life After High School". The book said that people who never faced adversity in high school had a tough time the rest of their lives. They never developed toughness from getting knocked down and getting back up.

Things came too easily to them. When times got bad, they were unable to cope. 

The person who loses a race for class president is more likely to be President of the United States than the person who won.

The loser has something to prove. The winner doesn't. 

Almost all Presidents lost an election on the way to the top. Abraham Lincoln lost a bunch.

Losing made them figure out what they did wrong and work harder the next time. 

When I start thinking of the world through the insider-outsider view, lots of things make sense.

I do business with people in developing countries and most have a tremendous work ethic. 

I know plenty of hard working Americans but the people from developing countries have an edge to them. They will work longer and harder.

Like a high school outsider trying to show up the insiders. 

Somewhere in life, the outsiders start to take over. They have that extra motivation that someone with privilege doesn't get. When you think of Americans as the ultimate insiders, it does not bode well for our long term future.

We need to get our mojo back. 

I'm also starting to understand why the insiders don't relate to the outsider's angst. The insiders does not realize that it exists.

I don't want to be hated for being an American. I didn't ask to grow up in a country of plenty, it just happened. 

The world view suddenly makes sense when I put it through the prism of high school popularity.

As far as the world is concerned, we are all "Miss America " and the rest of the world sees itself as "The Girl Next Door".

Don McNay Is President of McNay Settlement Group where we want people all over the world to make money. His columns are syndicated on the CNHI News Service. He is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. You can write to him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text51718 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or read other things he has written at DonMcNay.com