printThe Business Insider’s list of “Long-Term Trends That Are Absolutely Destroying The U.S. Economy” should form the sub-headings issuing from an overarching main causal agent: The State, its onerous regulations, and its mint. Over the decades, the Federal Reserve Bank, with State imprimatur, has debauched the currency and it manipulates interest rates so that the economy can never self-regulate.
In any event, The Business Insider may, at times, confuse cause with consequence, but, at least, it has looked beyond short-term trends; in itself a break from the trend.
See what you think (and do follow the hyperlinks before you accuse me of being remiss):
Long-Term Trend #1: The Deindustrialization Of America.
Long-Term Trend #2: The Exploding U.S. Trade Deficit
Long-Term Trend #3: The Shrinking Middle Class
Long-Term Trend #4: The Growing Size Of The U.S. Government
Long-Term Trend #5: The Constantly Growing U.S. National Debt
Long-Term Trend #6: The Ongoing Devaluation Of The U.S. Dollar
Long-Term Trend #7: The Derivatives Bubble
Long-Term Trend #8: The Health Care Industry
Long-Term Trend #9: Financial Power Is Becoming Concentrated In Fewer And Fewer Hands
Long-Term Trend #10: Rampant Corruption On Wall Street
Long-Term Trend #11: The Growing Retirement Crisis That Threatens To Bankrupt America
See the details HERE.
I used to think that exporting green paper pictures of dead Presidents for cars, TV sets, etc. was a good deal but # 1 and # 2 cannot be sustained in the long haul. John Stossel thinks it is a good deal but once Americans lose the industrial capability, I do not see how we can reclaim it – and while that may be fine on an individual basis, it makes all of us somewhat beholden to (admittedly competitive) foreign manufacturer/suppliers who may grow tired of our Greenback Funny-Money.
Another trend – the lack of desire on the part of most native-born Americans to do hard “productive” (as opposed to trading derivatives, selling products, etc.) work.
I’m going to make a few comments about number 1. My father railed about this as early as the 1960’s. It was clear to him that after rebuilding Western Europe and Japan without upgrading our own steel industry, for example, reduced our ability to compete in the world market. I suspect that unions and government regulation didn’t help our major industries either. Although it has taken many different forms over the years the results are the same more factories either move off shore or American workers are replaced by their cheaper foreign counterparts here in this country.
We like to brag about our high tech weapons but, we essentially lost almost an entire generation of engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and other technology professionals to the defense draw down and the internet bubble of the 90’s. The young turks are arrogant and don’t respect the voice of experience until they get thier asses caught in a vice. The mentoring is more difficult than it used to be even for those who are willing on both sides of he equation.
I would agree with number 1 based not only on the data but personal experience.
I don’t think you can do anything about numbers 1 and 2. Free trade is one of those issues like diversity, nation of immigrants, world’s policeman, that the elites of both parties support. Anyone suggesting otherwise is a no good protectionist, isolationist, xenophobe, etc.
Here is an interesting interview of Sir James Goldsmith by Charlie Rose in 1994 discussing free trade. This Goldsmith fellow accurately predicted what free trade would bring. During the entire interview Charlie and his other guest keep clinging to the free trade talking points dismissing what Goldsmith says.
It’s true about the health care industry.
A family member is a doctor. He majored in economics as an undergraduate and then went to medical school. He said the third party payment system has distorted the whole health care delivery system. Tax breaks, if any, should go to individuals and consumers should be allowed to buy the minimum amount of health insurance they wish. Too often elected officials dictate what can and cannot be covered which only serves to drive up costs for all.
And the focus should be on health insurance and not health care.
I have insurance for my automobile.
I do not have auto care for my automobile.
Insurance should be for catastrophic incidents.
Attitudes about production have scared me since I was a teenager. I always wondered how we had “stuff” without producing it? Those around me are clueless about production and the role it plays in a growing economy. Producing anything, other than paperwork, is seen as secondary to making man’s life more comfortable. No greater example can be found then the rise of “Human Resources” in large companies. In the old days it was “Personal”, as in, “GET ME SOME”. Today, HR seems to be the end all. Production is just a minor inconvenience on the way to creating HR. The very large tail forces the extremely small dog to carry it around.
I would also argue that the destruction of number one is what’s causing the rest. Production is all that matters and the other points are nothing more than attempts to live off the dying corpse of number one.
It’s all good: just keep piling it on, globalists-banksters-demicans-socialists-republicrats. To get System Change, this rotten system must first collapse.
Agreed with all above about how our deindustrialization is a major contributing factor to America’s decline. I particularly appreciated Mike Marks’ point about the loss of “almost an entire generation of engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and other technology professionals to the defense draw down and the internet bubble of the 90?s.” I lived through that, in the defense industry, and it wasn’t pretty. After the Berlin Wall fell, many of us working in defense desperately wished we could shift our efforts and apply our skills to some other task like space exploration or alternative energy development. It was not to be. Technical professionals about to be let go from major aerospace and defense corporations were advised to tweak their resumes to highlight skills other than their basic engineering and scientific capabilities…advised, in short, to make themselves compatible with new opportunities in customer service, health care, marketing, and personal service businesses.
It’s clear to me that the U. S. is not serious about maintaining status as an industrial leader. We seem to be going more the way of the U. K., toward the nation of shopkeepers “business model.”