Posted on 09/03/2009 4:51:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If we're lucky, the recession is winding down, and life will start to feel a bit more comfortable before long. But that doesn't mean things will go back to the way they used to be.
The global recession that began in America's housing market has shaken the world's economic order and possibly knocked the United States down a notch or two. The spendthrift American consumer is out of money. American wages are flat. Despite some hopeful signs, the U.S. economy could muddle along for years.
Meanwhile, actions in China—rather than the United States—may have been the initial trigger for a global economic recovery. Many other nations will grow faster than the United States over the next few years and command an increasing share of the world's resources. "The message to Americans," says Mauro Guillen, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, "is you need to redouble your efforts to be more competitive."
American innovation has solved daunting problems before and could again. But it would be a mistake to assume that American prosperity will continue on some preordained upward course. Nations rise and fall, often realizing what happened only in retrospect. Here are four problems that are undermining our future prosperity:
1) We don't like to work. Sure, now that jobs are scarce, everybody's willing to put in a few extra hours to stay ahead of the ax. But look around: We still expect easy money, hope to retire early, and embrace the oversimplistic message of bestsellers like The One Minute Millionaire and The 4-Hour Workweek. Unfortunately, the rest of the world isn't sending as much money our way as it used to, which makes it harder to do less with more.
White-collar jobs are now migrating overseas just like blue-collar ones. Kids in Asia spend the summer studying math and science while American mall rats are texting each other about Britney and Miley. "We need a different mind-set," says Guillen.
People need to invest more in their own future. Instead of buying stuff at the mall, spend the money on evening classes. Learn a language or skills you don't have.
I recently interviewed entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, who transformed his father's neighborhood liquor store into a $60 million business anchored by the Web site winelibrarytv.com. An overnight success? Hardly. Vaynerchuk has big plans, and he works at least 16 hours a day to achieve them.
He says:
If you want to work eight hours a day, you're going to get eight-hour-a-day results. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't want to hear you bitch about money if you're only willing to work eight hours a day.
Vaynerchuk is 33 and has something in common with John Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard mutual fund firm, who's 80. I talked to Bogle recently about how Americans need to change their approach to work and money. He told me this:
We need more caution, more savings, and we may have to work harder. Maybe we need more people who like to work and don't count down every day till retirement.
2) Nobody wants to sacrifice. Why should we? The government is standing by with stimulus money, banker bailouts, homeowner aid, cash for clunkers, expanded healthcare, and maybe more stimulus money. And most Americans will never have to pay an extra dime for any of this. Somehow, $9 trillion worth of government debt will just become somebody else's problem.
When he was campaigning, candidate Obama dabbled with the "personal responsibility" theme, and in his acceptance speech in November he called for a "new spirit of sacrifice." But now that he's in office, there's less interest in such quaint ideas. During his prime-time news conference about healthcare reform in July, a reporter asked Obama if ordinary Americans would have to give up anything in exchange for better, more widely available care. Obama's answer: "They're going to have to give up paying for things that don't make them healthier." Hooray! Something for nothing! He may as well have said, "Here's a magic pill that will make all your problems go away."
Obama's plan is to get a tiny portion of the American public—the wealthy—to pay higher taxes for the benefit of the majority. Hey, while we're at it, let's see if we can convince 1 percent of the population to bear the entire responsibility for fighting two open-ended wars that are supposedly in the interest of every American. It would just be too uncomfortable to tell the middle class that if they want something, they need to earn it themselves.
3) We're uninformed. The healthcare smackdown—sorry, "debate"—is Exhibits A, B, and C. The soaring cost of healthcare is a problem that affects most Americans. It's shrinking paychecks, squeezing small businesses, bankrupting families and swelling the national debt. Yet outraged Americans seem most concerned about fictions like death panels and government-enforced euthanasia, while clinging to the myth that our current system of selective availability and perverse incentives somehow represents capitalist ideals. But let's take a break from that burdensome issue to examine the likelihood that President Obama was born in a foreign country and hoodwinked America into believing he was eligible to run for president.
People who lack the sense to question Big Lies always end up in deep trouble. Being well informed takes work, even with the Internet. In a democracy, that's simply a civic burden. If we're too foolish or lazy to educate ourselves on healthcare, global warming, financial reform, and other complicated issues, then we're signing ourselves over to special interests who see nothing wrong with plundering our national—and personal—wealth.
4) iCulture. We may be chastened by the recession, but Americans still believe they deserve the best of everything—the best job, the best healthcare, the best education for our kids. And we want it at a discount—or better yet, free—which brings us back to the usual disconnect between what we want and what we're willing to pay for.
Rationing is a dirty word, so we can't have a system that officially rations something as vital as healthcare or education. Instead, we have unacknowledged, de facto rationing that directs the most resources to those with the best connections, the most money, or the savvy to game the system. What keeps the rest of us content is the illusion that we, too, will be able to game the system someday—as long as the government doesn't interfere.
Solutions that serve some public good—like Social Security and bank deposit insurance in the 1930s and Medicare in the 1960s—usually require everybody to give something to get something. If it works, the overall benefits outweigh the costs. Good programs leave individuals the option to pay more if they want more. Bad programs promise more than they can deliver. But often we don't know that until it's too late.
Yeah, sure - fictions. 'Death Panels' are so fictional that they were removed from the Senate bill.
The main problem is not that Americans are unwilling to work - the main problem is that Americans cannot work for third-world wages and maintain a first-world existence.
4 problems...Obama, Pelosi, Reid, News Media.
He lost me at this point. How is government funded healthcare any cheaper than private healthcare? Without tort reform and measures to keep the costs down it's not cheaper. We're either going to pay for it through higher insurance premiums and medical bills or through federal tax increases.
The clowns writing this drivel must have their heads buried in the sand or somewhere in a more persona, southerly space.
The Obama administration and the Democratic Party are making the push to completely wreck the last free country in the world and turn it into a third world Communist hell hole that they intend to rule with an iron fist.
The only reason they have even blinked so far is there are way too many firearms in citizens hands and they can't quite figure out how to try to steam roll us without a revolt.
My 4 are more simple:
Obamunist
Pelosi
Reid
Clinton
Note: There were 5 but one just croaked.
Persona = personal
Sorry, wireless keyboard and too much reliance on spell check.
I think he’s right on the $$. Most Americans are uninformed, but not necessarily about the examples he gave.
In a democracy, that's simply a civic burden. If we're too foolish or lazy to educate ourselves on healthcare, global warming, financial reform, and other complicated issues
I go to great lengths to educate myself on global warming. I just reach a very different (and scientific) conclusion than the writer does.
The irony is, he in turn is misinformed, mainly because he seems to be drinking the DNC Kool-Aid.
Rick Newman understands nada!
Unions
Taxes
Govt regulations
Which would be much cheaper if we weren't TAXED and REGULATED to death. Taxes and regulation permeate the system, driving up the cost of EVERYTHING, and doing it in a way in which it's nearly impossible to account for. That's why liberals get away with it as much as they do.
The Bible was wrong. Money isn't the root of all evil - government is. Money can't kill my whole family, my friends, and everyone on my block and get away with it by calling us all a bunch of right wing extremists. Even the Mafia can't do that.
He attacks the character of Americans for our economic problems.
1. We were more days per year than most other countries. White-collar jobs are not moving overseas because Americans are unwilling to work, but because corporations have become more greedy or have to in order to survive punitive taxation. Most of the people I've worked with invest a LOT of their time improving their job-related skills.
2. Nobody wants to sacrifice? Where does this guy by his crack? I don't think Americans (outside of war) can sacrifice much more than we have. Most have seen their private-retirement plans cut in half, taxes increase, cost of living increase, and an out-of-control congress and executive branch pushing us over the barrel for the royal dry-hump. Yet we're still going to work, paying our taxes, and we've cut back on spending nearly 7%, mainly to pay down our private debt. And we're buckling down and fighting back for the sake of our children. That IS sacrificing.
3. We were uninformed up until last November. NOW Americans are finally becoming informed about what a truly fascistic regime looks, sounds, and acts like. Yeah, we're protesting about the government determining life-and-death issues for us (his reference to “death panels”), AND we're aware of the economic side of the issue. The author thinks we're uninformed? He needs to tune in to some of these townhall meetings. We know EXACTLY what the hell is going on.
4. If the author of this article would do some basic economic research, he'd find out that retail is in the TANK. That means that Americans are not out BUYING the best and latest of everything. We are being financially responsible.
My FRiends, as we study the economy and we look more and more for bloggers and commentators who can explain what is happening in terms of fundamental and technical analysis, we must be very careful that with all their numbers and indicators, they don't poison the truth with their personal world view.
I'm seeing this occur more and more. Investors give some sound advice that proves successful and then suddenly they become foreign-policy experts, or cultural experts. They are not and they are stepping out of their zone of expertise.
This author's critique of the American people fits better between the covers of a Noam Chomsky spew than in an economic forum.
Unions
Taxes
Govt regulations
All 4 of which are a result of the government interfering with a free people and a free market.
So really, there's only one problem - government.
If the recession is winding down, its only because the depression is gearing up.
I forgot to mention that the core of the problem is that our monetary and economic policies are controlled by the central-banking system.
As long as the Federal Reserve and their bankster/criminal cronies are running finances and monetary and fiscal policy, NOTHING the American citizen can do can overcome the failure that is inevitable due to central banking.
Boom and Bust is the history of central banking. And it is always the banksters who profit with each boom and each bust and the citizen who is fleeced.
Those on welfare and food stamps are depending on you. We have to work harder so we can be punished with higher taxation for our efforts. That sounds like a plan. A bad plan.
Do the progressives beat their children when they succeed? Do they take things away from their children when they make straight "A" on their report cards or learn to walk?
Enact a flat tax or the Fair tax and do away with everything that is punishing the entrepreneur and investor and I guarantee that we can grow our way out of this economic mess.
we already have the highest productivity rate per employee in the world, right?
We need to keep our manufacturing and build upon it, we need to call our own shots and not let the WTO, CAFTA, NAFTA makes our decisions.
We do NOT need subsidies - we need market protection when wnd where cartels and dumping are used to drive USA industries out of business.
We need better education for our HS and college kids - NOT more expensive education, but better through competition and less government subsidizing.
We need to use our own energy resources and not subsidize the ME and offshore drilling for Brazil (and Lula).
We need to make gov jobs pay similar to their market counterparts, make it easy to hire/fire in that sector, and destroy the golden parachute/easy retirement metnality those jobs have because we simply cannot afford it.
Americans work hard given the right “corporate culture.” Unfortunately Obama is slacker in chief, productivity and ingenuity are taxed to death, and the Dems’ idea of prosperity is one big circle-jerk of lawsuits.
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