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Farmland is an important part of our future. We have many valuable natural resources that should not be squandered away. Care should be taken to ensure that our farmland is not purchased in mass quantities by foreigners using their stronger currencies.
In order to avoid the service trap we need to reignite the spirit of invention through active focus on science, engineering, medicine, and technology. These disciplines are the key to developing the needed products of tomorrow that will support our standard of living.
It has often been said that the U.S. is now a 'service sector only' nation....well perhaps that is not such a good thing after all.
No one ever suspected it was a good thing.
The problem with a service-economy is that it does nothing to create wealth.
It simply shifts wealth around in small, fragmentary bits, as more of the existing wealth is sliced off and funneled to the top. It creates the same "merchant class" chasm that has fueled a number of revolutions not to mention almost all of the "woe is me" leftist taxes since the beginning of human governance.
The one thing that determines collective standard of living is the *creation* of a broad base of wealth. Period. You can shuffle wealth around all day from "service" to "service"- it will not improve anyones lot.
You cannot have a high standard of living with a economy predicated on hair salons, check cashing places, restaurants, hotels and lawn care services.
Location: Sitting on a bar stool. Guinness in hand.
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senerio
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lincolnian
Farmland is an important part of our future. We have many valuable natural resources that should not be squandered away. Care should be taken to ensure that our farmland is not purchased in mass quantities by foreigners using their stronger currencies.
In order to avoid the service trap we need to reignite the spirit of invention through active focus on science, engineering, medicine, and technology. These disciplines are the key to developing the needed products of tomorrow that will support our standard of living.
Actually we need another space race type scenario to kindle a fire of inspiration and motivation. Outside of farming, I lean toward find a true long lasting alternative energy source and a new transportation system to use it. This bring into play Science, Engineering, and Technology aspect of it. Now I also believe Stem Cell and Genetic Engineering should also be a big part of America's future as well. This will bring into play the Medical, Engineering, and Technology.
Basically we need a reason first then the motivation and education will fall in line.
Uh, no.
Considering that their standard of living is about a kajillion orders of magnitude beneath ours and there are a billion of them to begin with, we will never, ever, ever, ever see the day when 3rd World Communist labor is priced competitively with American/Western labor. Ever. Not even in the same universe.
We must accept the fact that the worlds manufacturing base will shift to wherever the labor is cheapest and find new strategies to maintain our standard of living. "Stop buying things made in China" is not only impractical, it's unrealistic and near impossible (as evidenced by the computer you're using to read this very post)
Right now, we are living on the left-overs of the obscene economic growth our nation saw over the past century. Even though our population is growing and our exports are decreasing (which is the sole vehicle that can create economic wealth and increase the aggregate standard of living) we were just so spectacularly successful over the past century that we can still "live off the fat" for another half-century or so without really feeling the pain.
The left-overs (plus credit) should be enough to keep our present standard of living propped up for another generation or two. After that, we either figure something out, or maybe petition to join the UK as a commonwealth.
This shows how little you know about China. They said the same thing about Japan and we know what a powerhouse they have become.
The Chinese are educating their population at lightning pace. They own manufacturing, and without competition will own it forever.
Americans need to think long and hard about this.
Are we Americans really, all that willing to give up without a fight?
This shows how little you know about China. They said the same thing about Japan and we know what a powerhouse they have become.
The Chinese are educating their population at lightning pace. They own manufacturing, and without competition will own it forever.
Americans need to think long and hard about this.
Are we Americans really, all that willing to give up without a fight?
RedNC,
I'm not giving up without a fight! One of the reasons that I moved from business to education was to help prepare my students for a changing world.
It's a tough sell to students (and parents) to get them to buy-in to science, math, and engineering jobs. Those who have the potential for those fields realize that they require more work and are aware of other, easier, ways to make money.
A big part of the problem is that the classroom structure is very limiting for higher sciences, engineering and the like. Schools only have limited resources and are often 10 to 15 years behind the times in terms of technology. Also, few teachers are capable of teaching at the cutting edge of technology.
More programs for middle and high school students need to take place in businesses and out in the field. There also needs to be a variety of experiences and settings that better match the students' interests.
The current school funding structure is prohibitive in developing the types of programs needed for 21st-century education. Too many communities are building large mega-school facilities that maximize economic efficiencies and don't necessarily meet the educational needs of the students.
Many good ideas have been brought into this discussion. But, what I see as the major problem is that we've allowed government regulation, trade unions, and tax policy to make producing goods in the U.S. too expensive. One good first step would be to implement the Fair Tax and reduce the cost of producing goods, giving businesses more incentive to stay in the U.S. or move back. We need to eliminate minimum wage laws which eliminates many unskilled labor jobs. We need to remove the teeth from the labor unions, to prevent them from mandating how a company compensates their workers so that true competition in hiring can again be utilized by potential employees.
Many good ideas have been brought into this discussion. But, what I see as the major problem is that we've allowed government regulation, trade unions, and tax policy to make producing goods in the U.S. too expensive. One good first step would be to implement the Fair Tax and reduce the cost of producing goods, giving businesses more incentive to stay in the U.S. or move back. We need to eliminate minimum wage laws which eliminates many unskilled labor jobs. We need to remove the teeth from the labor unions, to prevent them from mandating how a company compensates their workers so that true competition in hiring can again be utilized by potential employees.
This is just a beginning, but a good start.
And don't forget the increasing health care burden employers in the U.S. have to bear, more each year. This is driving manufacturing away as well.
Honestly I think the manufacturing boat has sailed, it all happened in the past 10 years, almost more quickly than anyone can imagine. And it happened under the eyes of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House.
I was sitting in an upper management meeting and an executive was talking about the need to get everything over to China. He said "I know this is crazy and in the end we are slitting our own throats around this table by moving everything overseas. But if we don't we will not stay competitive this year with everyone else."
And it is true. The simple labor/assembly went first, then it was followed by all the supporting engineering/quality/finance /skilled production/procurement jobs, now more and more companies are hiring their middle and upper managers in China and India. They are moving their Research and Development facilities to India and Taiwan. Now when companies talk about coming back from China, they mean for the most part going back to Mexico, not the United States.
So these discussions about going back to agriculture sound as good as anything, I suppose. But I think this is a sea change that is different than past cycles. Global companies don't care where they are based or where their employees come from, they just want to make the biggest profit.
Face it, wealth will continue to accumlate, leaving more of us out in the cold. Unless we find some other way. We cannot continue in a system based on quarter to quarter growth forever, if for no other reason than the planet is only so big.
Unfortunately I don't know what that system would look like. Look at the failures of the alternatives Russia tried, for example.
It may, in fact, require some massive in the inate nature of people.
Face it, wealth will continue to accumlate, leaving more of us out in the cold. Unless we find some other way. We cannot continue in a system based on quarter to quarter growth forever, if for no other reason than the planet is only so big.
Unfortunately I don't know what that system would look like. Look at the failures of the alternatives Russia tried, for example.
It may, in fact, require some massive in the inate nature of people.
We'll be out in the cold only if we continue to be lazy and don't learn how to accumulate wealth ourselves.
Uh, no.
Considering that their standard of living is about a kajillion orders of magnitude beneath ours and there are a billion of them to begin with, we will never, ever, ever, ever see the day when 3rd World Communist labor is priced competitively with American/Western labor. Ever. Not even in the same universe.
Amen!!
Thank you for this excellent, common-sense articulation of a basic economic truth: Free markets always work better than centrally-planned ones
Too bad so many people in our own country don't quite get it...
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senerio
