[GonzoGOP]

In our case it will take closer to 300 years. Actually my gut feeling is that it has more to do with the closing of the frontier. Every generation has some finite percentage of individuals that are ambitious and talented. If there is a frontier it naturally attracts these individuals. This does two thing. It allows the settled areas to remain "settled" and grows the nation at the borders. On the frontier hard work and talent is rewarded, and stupidity is punished. Not by some government agency, but by the simple laws of nature.

Once the borders are closed those ambitious people turn their ambitions inward. Since it becomes a zero sum game they begin to take away from others in order to build their own empires. The lawyer replaces the miner, the politician replaces the engineer.

America stopped growing in 1959. Anyone under the age of 50 has never known a growing America. That generation, now is coming to power.

[Joe 6-pack]

"America stopped growing in 1959."

A trifling point, but I'd call it 10 years later than that...

The left's de-construction and revision of history has been very deliberately conceived to disconnect us from what made us great. A nation need not expand its borders to continue to increase in "greatness" as long as that pioneer spirit is kept alive by inventors, scientists, technicians, and indeed artists, engineers and virtually all aspects of human endeavour. Once the pioneer spirit is killed however, stagnation can not be far behind.

[Milhous]

The lawyer replaces the miner

At least one history book (I don't remember the title) about Sierra Nevada gold mining documented two equally popular paths to wealth. One group mined for gold in hardrock while the other group mined for rights in claim offices. (A mineral extraction dichotomy that continues to this very day judging from my own experience.)

My readings as a western mining history buff also revealed parasites, such as the Bank of America (BoA) trying their hand at various schemes. IIRC BoA once tried to corner Almaden quicksilver to use as leverage against gold miners. At that time quicksilver functioned as an essential component in extracting gold from ore.