Posted on 06/02/2014 3:57:20 PM PDT by Lorianne
Santiago, Chile
Along with history, travel is by far one of the best teachers. Formal education in classrooms can be stifling to the mind. It makes people believe that the world actually conforms to all the snazzy theories we read about.
But theres no economic textbook on the planet that can come close to showing you how the world really works.
Its not about stocks and flows, efficient markets, or official statistics. None of that stuff really matters.
The world runs on people. And even though our politicians go out of their way to highlight the differences among us, human beings all over the world are fundamentally the same.
We all love our children. We cheer for our favorite teams. We work hard to put food on the table for our families. We get frustrated with where were at in life. And we desire to achieve more.
This desire to achieve is fundamental to all humanity. Human beings aspire. We push ourselves to accomplish more and improve our stations in life. And this desire spans generations.
Parents always want their children to enjoy a better life than they had. And they work their butts off to ensure this happens.
This isnt exclusively a western phenomenon. All over the world, the need to provide a better life for ones children is practically a subtext to the social contract. And people in developing countries want exactly the same thing.
Theyre succeeding.
A child born in China today will have a far richer life than his/her parents and grandparents.
And in my travels to over 100 countries over the last 10+ years, Ive seen other frontier and developing markets that are bursting at the seams in a similar trend.
Myanmar. Colombia. Tanzania. Georgia. Sri Lanka. Botswana. Indonesia. Mongolia.
The growth rates in these places are staggering, and you can see first-hand the hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of poverty.
In these developing countries, they look across the water to the West and can see a rich and consumptive lifestyle. They want this lifestyle, especially for their children.
Theyve spent decades toiling in factories, saving money, and building for the future. Its time to cash in.
Decades ago, the vast majority of wealth and production was in the West specifically the United States.
Most people across Asia and Latin America were absolutely impoverished, and felt honored just to be able to work hard and export a product to the US.
Today, it is those same countries (particularly in Asia) that now hold the majority of the worlds wealth and production. And it is their growth that pulls the global economy along.
The West, on the other hand, is full of debt and consumption. Americas greatest exports are now infinite quantities of paper currency, drone attacks, and arrogant regulations like FATCA.
It doesnt take a rocket scientist to see where this is going.
The West is running out of steam, and the Social Contract subtext is breaking down. Parents are no longer able to provide a better life for their children.
Its not from lack of trying. But when youre bogged down by tens of trillions in debt, rising taxes, increased regulation, and a government that rules by fear and intimidation, its like swimming upstream in the middle of a hurricane.
Wealth and power are shifting. Developing nations are rising quickly, and western nations are sinking. Its happening. Ignoring this reality doesnt make it go away.
Providing a better life for our children now means breaking away from a 20th century paradigm and embracing the new rules of the game.
The world isnt coming to an end. But its changing, just as Hemingway wrote gradually, then suddenly.
This is fundamentally a good news story
and it opens up a world of opportunity for those who are willing to see it.
America is in decline because its leaders want it to be so.
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“One of those is in my truck’s block, underneath the water pump.”
Yep, it’s the little things that make a country great, like manufacturing a steel bolt where the bloody head doesn’t break off. When the heads break off the ChiComm bolts you can look at the color and see it was tempered incorrectly. Hope you own an American steel easy-out to remove the bolt made by the ChiComm apes. There is no better steel than American. The Japanese steel is a close No. 2, IMO. ChiComm steel is junk. I have buckets of ChiComm steel I’d love to shove up their commie butts, either with claymores or cold-steel enemas..
Disagree. I've owned a bunch of them, Subaru, Hyundai, Toyota, all new, and none of them have matched up to the Fords I've owned.
Tight, quiet, reliable, effecient, a touch of luxury even in the Taurus class.
I've got a Tundra now but that's it: Fords from here on out if the world doesn't end first.
Likely true up to about MY2000 or so.
But the Ivy League MBAs have made a lot of inroads there also.
For example, Putin's recent actions and China's bullying may seem to present short term gains but will cost both countries dearly in the years ahead, not only as they have to confront outside powers that re-arm (like Japan) in the wake of American withdrawal, but as the instability that withdrawal breeds causes internal instability among the factions jockeying for power in those regimes.
Be careful, the enema might bend ...
“The most reliable cars are made in Asia.”
No, the most reliable Asian cars are manufactured in Japan. The Japanese learned from Americans. Let’s not confuse ourselves. Japan is far superior to Asia as a whole by miles and miles. The Japanese are our friends.
Anecdotal experience is never actual reality.
I am going by Consumer Reports, where they survey thousands of user experience with cars.
Personally I have owned 64 Corvair (engine burned out), 67 Chevy Impala, 71 Chevy Nova (150k miles with no major repairs), 77 Chevy Malibu (great car), 80 Ford Pinto (rusted quickly), 90 Ford probe(velocity joints gave up), 94 Dodge Ram Van, 2001 Saturn Ion (great car), 2007 Pontiac G5 (no problems.
So as you can see I always buy American brands because I made living working for US manufacturing outfits.
Nothing is changing indeed, the rules have always been the same. A world lying itself to socialism, lack of government restraints and democratic vote for a rise in popularity of laziness and arrogant condescension toward those who work in present, past or future, is ushering itself towards utter failure and looting warfare Africa style.
Let the "Gumment" take care of it....
“For example, Putin’s recent actions and China’s bullying may seem to present short term gains but will cost both countries dearly in the years ahead, not only as they have to confront outside powers that re-arm (like Japan) in the wake of American withdrawal, but as the instability that withdrawal breeds causes internal instability among the factions jockeying for power in those regimes.”
Pretty good analysis, pierrem15.
Not to mention 22% food inflation this quarter and retail gas up 130% since Ø’s 2008 Inaugration.
“One of the few consensus ideas that I took away from the Strategic Investment Conference is that China has the potential to become a real problem. It seemed to me that almost everyone who addressed the topic was either seriously alarmed at the extent of Chinas troubles or merely very worried. Perhaps it was the particular group of speakers we had, but no one was sanguine.”
-—John Mauldin Thoughts From The Frontline
http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/thoughts_from_the_frontline/archive/2014/06/02/looking-at-the-middle-kingdom-with-fresh-eyes.aspx
Just repeating Thucydides: “the Spartans became nautical” in order to win the Peloponnesian War, and they soon became as corrupt and arrogant as the Athenians had been.
I have no influence over those who fear bogeymen or 50 IQ ChiComm apes. They are lost souls, and I want nothing to do with them.
Allow me to presume that you have a classical education similar to what Harvard once offered in the 19th century. Excellent.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - from the Tiffany Knight at the University of Alabama.
So what I have experienced in my life and relate to you anecdotally is not reality?
You go ahead, read magazines and take the questions, the “findings” and the marching orders from them.
I’ll stick to the facts as I find them.
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