Will the US ever return to it's glory days? (buy, tax, money)
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This is one time I will vote against the doom & gloom pundits that say game over for America.
We are a nation of many minds and many diverse peoples and that alone will cause America to rebound in time.
Each of us in our way can bring about change in the way we treat other peoples both here at home and the world. So quit worrying and Vote then hold those that you vote for accountable when they don't work for the people.
It both amazes me as well as saddens me that so many of the people ,under 60 ,are so brain dead all they want to do is whine about how the nation is going to hell instead of getting off their asses to change things for the better.
Many of us have worked our butts and seen little reward. Me personally, I've been laid off twice since 2007. Good quality family owned businesses that had to let half their workers go because people cannot afford to buy like before. Then I see the businesses getting all the work these days.... Filled with illegal migrant labor where English is the second language. How can the honest Joe compete anymore? If I tried to start a business and compete against that, I would be dead before I even started. Besides that, no banks are lending to people like me anymore. I'm all outta answers.
I've got a job, I've got more work to do than one man can even accomplish, so my hands are tied. For those who want to make it these days... Lets see, you've got giant conglomerate corporations that can run you outta town with the backing of the government. You've got many businesses either outsourcing to slave wage nations or hiring illegal workers here and paying under the table or minimum wage... Not many of the latter end up ever getting caught sadly... And, your going to need to hire. Seeing as how education has been on the chopping block nearly every year, good luck finding good quality help these days. Our K-12 system cannot churn good quality workers anymore, and doesn't effectively prepare for much. Instead of preparing students for the workforce, they have them studying for standardized tests so the schools can look decent. I'm seeing a lot of young people that are having trouble with basic math, let alone showing up to work on time or lasting for 10 hours work days, let alone 8. We need job creators badly, but the odds are stacked against most start ups unfortunately. Worse yet, the government cares about the health of the corporations doing all the outsourcing, yet allowing them to skimp on the taxes. Those small businesses end up absorbing most of the tax burden.
I would love to start a business, but for the work I do, the rewards would be too small for the enormous risk. I'd assume take my money to a country like Mexico like the rest of the smart ones have done... You know, countries that care about business on all levels. I love my country, I love the American spirit, and I want to see her prosper again. It appears as though the large businesses and our political pimps don't share my same patriotic spirit though. Congress it like a toilet that's long overdue for a good flush. This is not the same America as we saw 50 years ago. I'm not whining about it. I'm mad about what has been allowed to happen. Why were not citizens outraged years ago when the educational budgets were slashed??? That is our greatest form of infrastructure! I guess as long as everyone was seeing the value of their houses appreciate, they were content. Now the rooster has come to roost.
Many of us have worked our butts and seen little reward.
Often the "reward" for our hard work will not be given in our lifetime. The reward comes when it is time to. The generations that follow us will have to pay forward those rewards that we earned for them.
We still are the envy of the world with respect to pop culture. Hollywood still outsells every other movie studio in the world combined and then some. And our TV shows are translated and regionalized into dozens of countries.
And depending on who you ask, the US is still the promised land. Or at least better than many alternatives, and they'd be right. Europe is in shambles economically and a ticking time bomb of demographics is staring at it. The ECB wishes it could unilaterally print more money like the Fed can. The whole Euro thing was a brave little experiment - unified economic destiny without the binding law to see it through tough times. I doubt it will last in its present form.
Japan is in a similar boat. Did you know HALF of Japanese women born in the 70s are childless? I have gone to Japan and a number of towns now have no children. A few I've been to canceled their yearly festivals for children because there weren't enough or weren't any whatsoever. It's pretty bleak. Japan peaked in its population in 2007 at roughly 120 million. I expect it to be 60 million and dropping by 2050. China has MAJOR issues facing it (I liken their current economy as being built in the same manner as it was started ... with cheap labor and cheaply made while cutting corners) and it, too, is demographically doomed. Russia is a crackpot case of government run amok with each government-subsidized program being a mix of political posturing combined with poor oversight leading to laughable results. Their aerospace sector is a classic example.
Pretty much the USA is the only major industrialized power besides Germany, mayyyybe France, Canada and Brazil that doesn't have major systemic paralysis. China has major opportunities if it liberalizes its economy and government, cleans up massive corruption, and stimulates domestic spending through consumer protections. If China can do that, then I imagine it will become the next superpower. Same goes for the middle east. If they can diversify their economies I see major opportunities for them (see Qatar).
Africa ... is similarly faced with serious issues and won't overcome them until their governments somehow shake off foreign powers and corporations willing to support corrupt regimes in exchange for natural resources.
andywire, WWII left Europe and Japan in ruins. Connect the dots on why manufacturing thrived for decades after the war. No one else to satisfy pent up demand.
The biggest things to change the life of the blue collar worker was the uniform shipping container, the internet, and sophisticated logistics.
We finally have to compete with the entire planet. Nothing wrong with that, and we will achieve the results we deserve. If we expect wage premiums vs the world, we will have to get far more than a 12th grade education. It is not 1964 anymore. More sophisticated workforces are required now, or else, we're just doing what the less developed nations do, and providing 4 working limbs. That merits a minimal wage.
Not with its addiction to wars and welfare spending, it wont.
that's for sure, and engaging in unethical and criminal behavior is also not going to get us on the right track going forward.
it looks like our leaders engage in wars and then keep the "frozen" money.
regarding libya, goldman sachs lost 98% of libya's 1.3 billion sovereign wealth fund, (doing god's work, i imagine....) and then, after that, we killed gaddafi. (making sure that he gave up his weapons first, of course)
obama promised to return the "frozen" money, (which of course our government froze) but, of course, did not:
Yep. Because by the time the world credit crisis manages to unwind itself, the United States will be the last man standing. Europe is unravelling right now, and China is not far behind. Japan's debt is roughly 250% of its GDP. The BRIC economies have decades and decades before they can reach parity with the United States, even with our current economic issues.
What dip, the whole world is dipping with us. The same parasitic bankers who crippled our economy were busy losing bundles in europe on currency swaps. The world will recover when they start dragging the 1% off in handcuffs
the thing is, despite the fractional reserve banking system putting us deep in debt, we still have a standard of living that is very good... in fact the standard of living in all developed countries with central banks that are relatively high in debt is much higher than their counterparts that don't have huge debts or developed banking systems, generally speaking.
Yes there will be some pain, but it's just numbers on a computer screen. Watch them go poof and all the stuff built with that funny money is still there. But when we start over we should devise an asset based monetary system, instead of a debt based one.
The liquidity trap is near, the rich have become too rich, and the middle class has been, or is being, squeezed out.
Wages are hitting silly low levels for blue collar work and health care costs are astronomical. Social security and medicare are basically insolvent. They won't be able to keep the system floating for that many more years.
the thing is, despite the fractional reserve banking system putting us deep in debt, we still have a standard of living that is very good... in fact the standard of living in all developed countries with central banks that are relatively high in debt is much higher than their counterparts that don't have huge debts or developed banking systems, generally speaking.
Yes there will be some pain, but it's just numbers on a computer screen. Watch them go poof and all the stuff built with that funny money is still there. But when we start over we should devise an asset based monetary system, instead of a debt based one.
The liquidity trap is near, the rich have become too rich, and the middle class has been, or is being, squeezed out.
Wages are hitting silly low levels for blue collar work and health care costs are astronomical. Social security and medicare are basically insolvent. They won't be able to keep the system floating for that many more years.
When "we" start over I don't think "we" the people will have any more say in what the "new" economic construct will be, but, one think I'd bet on is that "they" will make that decisions just as "they" always have..
To view the present day US financial situation as a "mistake" or glitch in an otherwise great system would be an admittance of ignorance of the worst kind, yet many of our countrymen feel that way. The entire US economic system has worked just fine for those who created and nurtured it through it's early development. It was never meant to work for "us" the majority, to see this for what it is means that you can differentiate between them who lose and them who win.
We don't have a monolithic economy here in the US, never have. It was always about winners and losers, a massively stratified system that was essentially built on the Ponzi model that requires more suckers all the time in order to expand. Each generation of American workers insures the needed quota of those who are willing to go into debt and therefore are also comfortable with the notion of an insurmountable national debt being a natural aspect of capitalistic economics.
"They" can export this model to those nations that at present are in their fledgling state economically, the citizens can become the quintessential pro-sumers, making and buying their way into the same economic labor/management paradigm of early day America. Workers in the US are fast becoming economically irrelevant in the global capitalist scheme of things.
American's have been told by their masters that UAW = evil. They wagged their little tails and started buying Hondas. At least when my dog learned to shake, I gave him a doggy treat though...
Well call us the REDFORDs because we just bought Two Red Fords
the thing is, despite the fractional reserve banking system putting us deep in debt, we still have a standard of living that is very good... in fact the standard of living in all developed countries with central banks that are relatively high in debt is much higher than their counterparts that don't have huge debts or developed banking systems, generally speaking.
Yes there will be some pain, but it's just numbers on a computer screen. Watch them go poof and all the stuff built with that funny money is still there. But when we start over we should devise an asset based monetary system, instead of a debt based one.
The liquidity trap is near, the rich have become too rich, and the middle class has been, or is being, squeezed out.
Wages are hitting silly low levels for blue collar work and health care costs are astronomical. Social security and medicare are basically insolvent. They won't be able to keep the system floating for that many more years.
The biggest danger is falling wages and unemployment. The credit trap is coming as families try to keep up by borrowing more.
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