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It figures I would run into a Titanic historian who would refute the details. ....
I've always been fascinated by that time, the specific technology used in that ship, and the final disposition of what caused her sinking. The specific business model they used, contrary to popular belief and lore, was not to build the most luxurious sailing ship out there. The business model was to build a ship that could carry as many 3rd class passengers as possible because the real demand for these ships were the masses of destitute that were looking to travel to the USA for a better life. The class structure and governmental monarchies of Europe did nothing for the common person who lived lives not much better than the serfs of the middle age.
People would take their life's savings to book passage on a ship to the USA and that is where they luxury, mystique, and marketing of riding on the biggest and fastest triumphs of technology came from. This is why such luxury was also built into these people carriers, it helped to sell tickets. Ironically the Titanic was a bit conservative with the design in doing such things as sticking with reciprocating steam engines instead of the more advanced turbines for main propulsion. (they did use a turbine that ran on waste heat)
The failure of the Titanic caused people at the time to question technology and if eternal optimism was indeed called for. i.e. things were changing so fast they would get out of control. There are a lot of parallels to that and where we are today. Of course the Titanic was soon forgotten because WWI started just 2 years later and it changed everything.
Real unemployment numbers are over 17% with the Detroit area over 50%!
More jobs are going overseas every year and we manufacture almost NOTHING anymore!
Unless you have a job in the health care industry,I'd be worried!
Shameful are the SHEEP who follow what the idiots on tv tell you and actually believe it! If you're not prepared for what can and will happen you have no one to blame except yourself!
You have never driven across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas etc etc etc. and seen mile after mile of all the stuff we manufacturer each year.
I think current ag exports are right around 100billion a year.
I don't share that pessimism.I think the future of the US will be very promising.
Once the debt crisis is allowed to correct itself (i.e. we have a huge recession/depression) then the future of the US will look bright. As we sit right now, nothing looks bright. Our trade deficit is a ticking time bomb, and we continue to print money like no tomorrow. All you have to do is READ and NOT LISTEN. Ben Bernanke has come out and warned about a debt crisis if we don't rain in our deficit soon. Warren Buffet has preached since the early 2000's that the trade deficit is a huge worry and more worrisome than the individual debt accumulation or the US gov't debt accumulation.
Look at the history or Warren Buffets investing strategy. Up until the last 10+ yrs, he invested almost completely in American companies. He has stated he is looking abroad, and he has even bought some precious metals in the last few years because he is "bearish on all currencies." This is obviously due to the debt. Because no gov't (especially ours with our entitlement mentality) is going to reign in the debt with fiscal responsibility. They are just going to print money. And if you look at the numbers, with the amount of debt we have/the amount of bonds that can be cashed in at any time, we have a huge inflation worry in our country. This doesn't even mention that nearly 80% of our long-term debt is in medicare, medicaid, and social security (ALL THREE are tied to inflation). So we can't even print our way out in order to pay off our debt, because as inflation increases, so do the payments on these three programs. There is going to be some major short-term pains.
Having said that, after we allow the economy to correct itself and we come out a producer nation (instead of the consumer nation we currently are) and we come out a saving nation (instead of a borrowing nation), then AND ONLY THEN the sky will be the limit for the US. But as we sit now, I don't see how anybody can be bullish on the US economy. I personally still continue to invest because 20+ years from now we will be a more advanced, better nation than we are today. But I have no idea how bad the pains will be over the next 5+ years.
I just know that things can't get much better until they get a lot worse to correct our imbalances in the economy. Or, the worst case scenario, the gov't will continue to try and "stimulate" the economy (which is basically just trying to re-inflate a bubble that isn't supposed to be there) and under this situation we will be like Japan, a recession lasting well over a decade with no end in site (until the gov't can no longer borrow money to "stimulate" and at that point the economy will have to contract to get rid of the imbalances that were produced. If the free market were allowed to function, things would currently be a lot worse than they are now, but we would have already rid ourselves of the bad investments/businesses/spending practices that got us into this situation. So there would already be an end in site. But now, thanks to gov't interventions, all of these bad companies still exist, wasting capital that could be used to help build a solid economy, and people continue to borrow like never before. The root causes of this recession haven't been fixed, and until they are, things can't get better. It's basic common sense. The fact that the gov't can't see it scares the hell out of me. They think what "caused" the recession was banks quit lending. That's not a cause, that's a symptom. The cause was that their lending practices became too lax, and they realized, "hey how can anybody possibly repay a loan when they can't afford to put anything down and can only pay the interest?" So they tightened their lending standards. The problem was that lending standards were too loose in the first place. The second thing they think was a "cause" is that people may quit spending (see Bush's stimulus check a couple years ago). That's a symptom, not the problem. The problem is that we were spending borrowed money that we couldn't pay back. THAT'S THE PROBLEM. The symptom is that we quit spending to pay off our debts. How can paying off your debts possibly be a problem? Or how can banks unwillingness to lend to borrowers that have no business borrowing in the first place be a problem? The gov'ts idea of what's wrong is so...wrong.
Of course, the gov't doesn't want these things to happen because it will result in a short-term recession (worse than we are in now). And we all know, no president wants to be the guy that had one of the worst recessions/depressions in US history while they were in office. So they do everything they can to keep the game going. Well, the problem with that is, it just compounds the problem so when the correction actually occurs, it will just be a worse correction. You HAVE to let the free markets rid the economy of bad companies/investments. Then we can use that extra money in circulation to produce companies that are actually meaningful and export goods that the rest of the world needs to bring more money into the US.
Here's an article I was just reading this morning from CNNmoney. These are predictions on what IS GOING to happen if we don't change (based on trends that are unsustainable, not a random shot in the dark prediction). And where do these predictions come from? From some of our nations top economists:
You have never driven across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas etc etc etc. and seen mile after mile of all the stuff we manufacturer each year.
I think current ag exports are right around 100billion a year.
Seriously man I see people making these claims that the US doesn't manufacture anymore or the US doesn't export anymore, and the facts just don't agree.
Is the trend good? Nope. How to change that? Now THERE is an interesting topic for discussion.
Seriously man I see people making these claims that the US doesn't manufacture anymore or the US doesn't export anymore, and the facts just don't agree.
Is the trend good? Nope. How to change that? Now THERE is an interesting topic for discussion.
I agree with this, there are quite a few companies in the US that still export/manufacture. The problem is we are importing more than exporting, but this idea that we have no manufacturing companies just isn't true. In fact, I'm currently investing an American ag./infrastructure company that create products here in the US and exports most of them to other countries (as well as sells them to American farmers/cities/etc).
Seriously man I see people making these claims that the US doesn't manufacture anymore or the US doesn't export anymore, and the facts just don't agree.
Is the trend good? Nope. How to change that? Now THERE is an interesting topic for discussion.
We demonize every successful US company and then whine when we can't find jobs. If they are too successful then we REALLY hate that they are making "obscene profits".
Do they actly poorly at times? Make bad decisions? Huge errors? Definitely.
We just tend to forget however that their profits mean jobs for us, taxes paid and so on and so forth.
I hear that crap a lot from my father in law, a school teacher. Someone who never had to make a profit yet those are what pay his salary.
Really disappointed in the anti-business attitudes in the US but the mood is turning as people realize you need an economic base or schools face big cuts and so on and so forth.
U.S. trade deficit is almost exactly equal to the amount of energy we import.350 billion vs.389 billion.Gee,if we used our own energy sources,nuclear,nat gas and coal,how much stronger as a country,economy,could we be?
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