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I thought I would wince reading this, but they have a point. The US economy has been so prosperous for so long Americans have come to expect excessive goods, oversized, underpriced, and serviced immediately.
It has created a country of malcontents, materialistic parents and self-centered children throw tantrums when they don't get what they want. We live in bigger and bigger homes with AC on all the time, and it has made us more demanding and entitled.
Now that this perfect system of supply chains has crashed and store shelves have emptied Bloomberg suggest Americans live like Europeans.
Minus the UK, western Europeans spend half as much per-capita on consumer goods. They take up there recreational time with outdoor walks, cafes, biking, family visits, or window shopping.
It has created slower growing economies, but Europeans have found a way to make it by. Americans are taught its their patriotic duty to spend, but our economy doesn't have to structured in a way that is reliant on consumerism. 70% of our GDP is based on consumer spending, so if people stop the economy will tumble. But with the supply chain crisis America may be forced to reorient their economy are production.
That means insuring supposed low growth businesses like local businesses, mid-sized firms, and protected industry (that is less competitive globally).
Furthermore, with a slower less dynamic economy, we would attract less migrants and force loyal citizens to procreate.
Yay or Nay?
So in order to make things better, make the economy worse? Why all we need is a recession to get things back on track, right?
LMAO Just when I thought you couldn't make a more ridiculous economic post than previously, you prove me wrong.
And you'd rather put it in the hands of people who profit off of sick people to the point our nation has $140 billion in medical debt ALONG WITH the highest per capita health care spending of any country on earth. Stop buying the propaganda.
$30 trillion of national debt and a $1T annual budget deficit. SS trust fund 15 years from insolvency. Public sector pensions functionally bankrupt. Amtrak - bankrupt. USPS - a hot mess and also bankrupt. <- This is all propaganda?
Private insurance is still better than the federal government.
The government created this mess. I'm not giving them more power and money to fix it.
Americans shouldn’t live more like Europeans. Because they’re not.
They’re Americans. But we’re teetering on the brink of communism so who knows.
We should just do like the Germans. America, and West America. Build a wall and let the commies have their way. Or invade Mexico and ship all the commies down there.
The USPS works just fine. So does the interstate highway system. Medicare works reasonably well, otherwise you’d have senior citizens screaming to get rid of it. State Universities run very well and do a lot of top notch research. Public water and sewer systems work well enough to provide safe drinking water and adequate sewage disposal. Amtrak works well in places where it can run on its own dedicated track, rather than having to wait behind freight trains when running on tracks it doesn’t own. [I personally think it’s silly to run passenger trains on freight lines. It gives the whole Amtrak system a bad name.]
The whole notion that government can’t do anything right is propaganda. Not everything has to be privately run for profit. Do you really want law-enforcement to be a for-profit enterprise? I can imagine some pretty bad outcomes. Look at the private prison industry. Do you really want your doctor or local hospital to be driven mainly by the profit motive? Again, I can imagine some pretty bad results.
Good post.
The propaganda about the govt not being able to do anything right came from Reagan, if I remember correctly.
I agree the profit motive does not belong in many areas of society, like healthcare and education.
USPS works fine? You must be talking about a different USPS than we have in the States? It’s a freaking mess. Always losing packages and slow delivery.
The problem with government run stuff is they have no reason to improve. There is no improvement incentive. It just doesn’t exist in the public sector. The other problem is that they, just like businesses, always want to grow. They can’t “stop” at given great service around their initial intent. It’s human nature to want to get bigger. The problem of course is public funding has its limits. This is why we are in the pickle we are with a college degree costing so much. These schools have tried to be everything to everyone over the years with expansion after expansion. Now the costs are unruly.
USPS was working just fine until DeJoy, a Trump appointee got a hold of it.
Let me know when our lovely federal government runs a budget surplus for at least 5 consecutive years and stops bitching and moaning that it doesn't have enough money or stops weaponizing bureaucracies against people they don't like.
I'm not putting my medical care in the hands of people who can't balance a checkbook.
When you turn 65 will you refuse Medicare and pay your own way?
Their high taxes, unlike ours, are going to stuff that personally benefits them. It's not like people who make $40000 are literally getting half taken out of their check.
Their high taxes, unlike ours, are going to stuff that personally benefits them. It's not like people who make $40000 are literally getting half taken out of their check.
They also don't have a corrupt incompetent government that ran a budget deficit 20 years in a row and bankrupted literally everything they touched. Do you seriously think our lovely federal government would stop doing nothing and bankrupting everything it touches if it takes 40% of our paychecks instead of 20%? No, it would just waste even more money.
If the USD wasn't a reserve currency, we'd be under IMF management and forced austerity measures by now.
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