Well, the aberration was the Fifties - when due to WWII and American economic ascendancy it for the first time in history became possible for a hardworking blue collar guy to achieve a middle class lifestyle. Of course, that possibility quickly became viewed as the norm, and our political class has spent an extraordinary forty-year period trying to borrow tomorrow's prosperity to maintain the illusion. Now that China and India are ascendant and we are on the downslope, something is about to give...
The only way for the US to remain on top is to relax regulation, limit taxation, and encourage immigration (of the world's biggest brains - not more Mexican day laborers). Unfortunately, powerful segments of the political class oppose all three options, and thus we stand exactly where Britain stood a hundred years ago - at the brink of the precipice.
All, well said.
We can relax all regulation and drop taxes to zero, we still won’t compete with China in terms of wages. Heck, even China is losing jobs now to Vietnam. Go figure.
I used to think that the way to keep America competitive was to recruit the “big brain boys” from other countries. The thing is, they’re now like guns for hire. The big brain you hire today could be working for a German company tomorrow. They don’t care where they live. NYC isn’t that different from London, Paris, Madrid or Berlin.
I’ve seen this first hand. It’s the upside of globalism for a lot of people.
You Got it!