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I'm figuring our #1 export is jobs.
You're right about infrastructure investment, though. Those who hold the power seem more concerned with blowing things up and extremely short sighted goals (oil and more oil) than investing in the future.
There was a great episode of "Frontline" that explored how vulnerable and antiquated our power grid is. Scary stuff.
I agree with you Vaughn. For the last 15 years our main export has been jobs.
"US consumers taste for large gas guzzlers—pickups, SUVs and minivans accounted for more than 50% of new car sales in the US from 2001-2007—the US underwent a massive exporting of wealth to the Middle East over the last seven years.
Collectively, the Gulf Cooperation Council’s [GCC]—Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—economy more than doubled between 2001 and 2006. Similarly, the GCC trade surplus has exploded above $500 billion and is now closing in on $700+ billion.
This transfer of wealth also fueled one of the biggest infrastructure booms in history. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and other areas in the region have transformed from semi-desert regions to burgeoning metropolises. Altogether, the GCC plans to invest more than $1.6 trillion in infrastructure in the next five years. Some of the more striking projects:
King Abdullah City: a 68 square mile city built in Saudi Arabia.
Dubailand: a 3 billion square foot theme park twice the size of Walt Disney World in Dubai.
Silk City: a $136 billion, 250 square kilometer city in Kuwait."
I think we need to think about sustainability here....... or else. The switch to electric vehicles, a transition to intelligent and efficient electric power distribution. The alternative is to leave things the way they are and lose or hemhorrage money to other regions and have less here in America.
Dependency is not good. There is only so much money the U.S. can print without affecting the dollars value, inflation is one scary problem. Imagine if all that "Oil Economy" was left here at home? Here in this country, wealth in cities that could have Dubai's wealth, or Saudi's wealth. Economics tells me that a more sustainable economy, one without dependencies from a different economic model or region, is a better economy.
We need to look for different sources of energy, sources that will leave us more money here for us, instead of decreasing the amount of money there is in our economy.
Thise green piece of paper are backed up with your national GDP.The more we send out on such things as energy the laess that goes to you in services. bascailly energy is our biggest problem in exportig not only jobs but our wealth to foreign countries we can even count on to keep it coming.Alterantives are more expensive than we can afforsd when they ever get to any per cantage that nakes a difference. The end of oil is going to be the big shock the world has seen .
The real problem is more that we now do not product near enough of our own energy. Why;its just too costly policitally and regualtio waise to risk the capital. Bascailly no refinery can for example be even thohgt of to be built in US because no one can figure the fianla cost. Too risky. That si whay only new projscts at existing refienries to consolaitated prodcution is going on or planned. that with crude need i thsi country not expect to rise much in coming ceades. The real rise in in merginfcoutryies like china and indai that has grown at appos 10% per year.Alternative being cost wiose competitive with crude is deacdes away. that emans those with crude can produce cheaper making lobor not so much a factor as in the past.Then of course there is automation.
So the good news is that the rich, who have stolen 40% of the economy, will be taking that money to China. Unless you are willing to work for less than a Chinese Cooley you had better unionize.
Wages have been falling for a decade and we are headed for the third world.
I suggest a special tax on wealth exported for foreign investment and a tariff on the profits that result. If a citizen, like the former head of Blackwater, runs off to avoiid being held responsible for his crimes, he should instantly lose his citizenship.
The other alternative to paying for the Arab oil was to use our army to take over the places and steal the oil. After all that is a traditional way to obtain resources that are too expensive.
After all this time you'd think more people would see the goals of global capitalism being the real culprit in wealth migration. We have been taught to think of our economy as something that belongs to us, we have also been taught that capitalism was a central factor in the development and spread of American lower class wealth.
The truth of this myth is that capitalism is not some scientific construct with a component of empathy or caring, it is a very simple monetary view that demands the lions share of wealth go to the upper classes, better known as the "capital class." That's why there has never been an all inclusive economy in America, from the colonial times the wealthy manipulated the government to the extent that most laws were created to assure that the wealth continued to grow on the side of the upper class, of course those on the lower rungs were providing the labor that allowed capital to be put to work, the workers of course had only their labor to sell and the powerful set the pay rates low, high rates were reserved for the product of this partnership of capital and labor. Capital needs the restraint of law in order for it to work best for all.
How in the world we ever expected this kind of system to work to our advantage is beyond me. I don't think the work that has gone overseas will come back in order to make things fair, it isn't in the best interest of the capital class to provide any fairness in most things of a financial nature. To the mind that sees the market as some type of provider of economic balance I can only say that history simply won't support that notion. I've known my share of people who really think the Market is an entity that exists in a social vacuum , in this type of thinking, no forces are present to exert influence from any strata of society, the market is beyond anyones outright control, and best of all it has some mechanism that allows it to be self correcting. Now most of us know this isn't true, but, most of us have clung to this system even though we know of it's bias that favors the rich.
We don't need another "ism" type of economic system, what we really need is the kind of economy that allows for a lot of plain old free enterprise, government funding of small business rather than the present handouts to the rich that we've been accustomed to. Do we really want to get out of this mess we're in? if so then we'd better not make anymore mistakes in our political thinking, no matter what party you are supporting at the very least hold their feet to the fire and demand a slice of "our" pie, don't give another dime to the rich, start putting the dollars down to the lower levels of workers and watch things grow, we spend our money, we don't take it down to some island bank never to be back in America again. When the rich own our government we are doomed, if we can't provide the restraint of law on capital then the rich will certainly grow richer on our collective backs.
Seems simple enough until you see the amount of polarity out there, regardless of our disagreement on things political it's time to look hard for that economic common ground, without it we are divided, just like the fat cats like it. Whose government should it be?
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