Joe Biden: Infrastructure, Not Personal Freedom, is Behind America’s Economic Dominance

PJ Media ^ | 2/6/14

[SoFloFreeper]

...Biden also had this to say on the subject of why America has the world’s largest economy.

“No, I’m not joking!” he added. “Why did we lead the world economically for so long? We had the most modern infrastructure in the world.”

Biden implies that we no longer lead the world economically, which isn’t true. It’s not even close to true. The US economy is still the world’s largest by far, nearly double the size of China’s economy and more than three times third-place Japan’s. Several US states, including California, Texas and New York, would rank above most national economies on their own.

The US remains the big dog, but some other countries are catching up. The question is why?

The period Biden is probably referencing is the decades following World War II, roughly 1945 to 1969 or so. The US enjoyed a period of massive economic expansion relative to the rest of the world, and the US outproduced the rest of the world combined, by far, for many of those years.

[SoFloFreeper]

The mainstream media is trending this story, too. But I believe they're doing it for a different reason.

I think the media is denigrating Biden so Hitlery can benefit.

By the way, did anyone in the media mention that TRILLION DOLLAR STIMULUS that was touted by Team Obama as improving the infrastructure? Wasn't Joe in charge of that rollout?

[FlingWingFlyer]

There he goes again. Rimshot is on a roll.

[coloradan]

Sure, America had huge infrastructure from 1776-1910, when it became the richest place on Earth. Sure Joe, sure.

[Da Coyote]

Ah, another kernal of knowledge from the glittering jewel of colossal ignorance.

And the lamentable, laughable, and tragic fact is that Sloe Joe is typical of your modern lib.

[KarlInOhio]

He might have an arguement that infrastructure was vital if the government was spending it on something productive. Imagine something like gigabit per second networks to every business and house in the country as a 21st century analog of the interstate highways. Instead, they pissed away tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in "stimulus" money on things like curb cuts and sidewalks.

[jim_trent]

I am sure glad that there was all that infrastructure when our forefathers stole this country from the Indian-Americans. And, when we stole all that land from Mexico-Americans, I am glad we stole the side that had all the jobs. Smart people, our forefathers.

[Jack Hammer]

Sheesh, what an ignorant *sshole.

This guy’s an embarrasment to the nation.

But even at that, he’s faaaar less a face palm than President Obandit.

[Starboard]

“No, I’m not joking!” he added.“

***********
Biden says so many stupid and ignorant things that there’s no way to tell whether he’s joking or not. People expect to hear nonsense from this clown all the time.

[LibLieSlayer]

Says the brainless communist drone.

[Justa]

What, like Pyongyang, NK Joe?

[MNnice]

Yeah, and where did the money and manpower come from to build that infrastructure? The government is only a middleman.

[tomkat]

How is it possible to be that militantly stupid and not off yourself over the sheer embarrassment of it ? !

[Jim Scott]

Slow Joe Biden gets it wrong but then he wouldn’t be ‘Slow Joe’ if he ever got anything right. American’s economic freedom is a result of it’s founding structure that was built on the basis of individual freedom and this is why the U.S. has led the world economically since 1945 and continues to do so, despite Obama’s best efforts to thwart it via government intervention via regulation and taxes. Biden is just a dope.

[Don Corleone]

“You didn’t build that”

[trebb]

Yep - started with Franklin’s stove and Revere’s silver and pewter shops and no place else in the world could duplicate that kind of infrastructure....I think “what’s he smokin’” Joe might be onto something.

[virgil]

I agree that you need railways, roads, airports, other things for a modern industrialized country. Not so sure we needed a massive, bloated federal govt involved to get all of those things, though. But then, what would the federal govt do without industry? There’d be no work for them, nothing to regulate, except...you and me. Maybe the NSA spying..the IRS harassment...the militarization of police, obamacare, etc are attempts at govt to use whatever means possible, some of them draconian, to justify their existence as industry deflates. This assumes that our economy is shrinking though and I don’t know if it really is. If true, though, as industry-business deflates, will govt get bigger and bigger, and totalitarian? Nature abhors a vacuum.

[Ancesthntr]

People didn’t come here by the tens of millions over the last 200+ years because we had a great infrastructure, they came because of our freedoms and the opportunities that those freedoms allowed the people of this country to create. Those 10s of millions became productive, and helped to finance the government. Oh, and the government didn’t build the highways, rail lines, hospitals, schools, etc. - they were built by private industry. All that the government did (and rather inefficiently, at that) was to hire private companies to do those things on our behalf, and use our money to pay the bills (well, our money and our children’s and grandchildren’s in the last half century or so).

Hey, Joe, my grandfather didn’t leave Russia at the very end of the Revolution in the early 1920s because he wanted to enjoy smooth roads and pretty-looking bridges, he did it because he wanted his yet-unborn kids to actually have a future...you phucking moron!