America's Third World Economy
Paul Craig Roberts writes -
“The US economy has been losing jobs for a decade. As manufacturing, information technology, software engineering, research, development, and tradable professional services have been moved offshore, the American middle class has shriveled. The ladders of upward mobility that made American an "opportunity society" have been dismantled . The loss of middle class jobs and incomes was covered up for years by the expansion of consumer debt to substitute for the lack of income growth. Americans refinanced their homes and spent the equity, and they maxed out their credit cards.”
You have every reason to be concerned. We are on the extreme edge of disaster. There are those that say if things get any worse we could be an armed insurrection. This is the scary part, considering the “Militia” enrollment has more than tripled in one year.
I have a real fear that something terrible will soon come from this unsustainable level of spending. Interest rates are at historic lows. If they should rise, just servicing the current debt would cost even more hundreds of billions in borrowed dollars. Soon, we will face a bleak choice of either slashing national defense or Social Security -- or both -- just when the nation is graying and the world is becoming more dangerous than ever. Will the Chinese lend us the money to deploy an aircraft carrier off their coast, or finance new American health-care entitlements that they cannot afford for 400 million of their own people?
Some of the old theories of “Isolationism” may not be something Americans want to think about. If drastic change in this Country means a little “Social Democracy”, then maybe its time. The U.S. has extended its tentacles around the World for a long time; sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
If our Government could figure a way to retrench its International escapades and experiments, our friends and foes alike might just feel a little less nervous. I wonder what the World would look like then? I would be happier than a pig in poo-poo to be around to see it!
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