mrstickball said:
I agree 100%. There are only 2 ways you can grow an economy in the global marketplace: 1) Invent something 2) Manufacture something America does neither. Our manufacturing base is almost nil due to shipping jobs to countries that have the ability to produce goods at a cheaper price. This will (obviously) happen as long as there's an understandable reason for it. We will not find a solution to that problem unless we make American business more competitive (and that'll never happen unless we reduce barriers that the Govt. has such as incredibly high corporate tax rates that scare away new ventures in the states). Service jobs, such as new Internet infrastructure will do NOTHING for the economy. Eventually, the IT centers will be shipped overseas to India, and we will have gained nothing from it. If money is to be invested, it needs to be invested in new ventures that other countries can't establish them in. China does our manufacturing because they don't have the infrastructure to do more advanced things. India does our IT because they do. Mexico does our labor when we can't find someone in the states to do it, Mid-East makes our energy, and Europe trades various high-end goods with us. If Obama wants to create real, lasting jobs, he needs to focus on industries that are beyond the reach of other countries. I believe that industry is space travel, and technology. America is one of the few countries with the capacity to do that - we have the space (pun intended), infrasctructure, technology and funding to do it, yet we're still stuck in the 1970's with our mentality. Eventually, other more intelligent countries will supplant America in the space race (and in some ways, Russia has done this with affordable technology). Obama needs to take what Bush started - the colonization of the moon by 2016/2020 and make it a profitable venture. Make America the world's spaceport. You could create millions of high-paying, long-lasting manufacturing and service jobs, because few countries have the ability to have both a large amount of space for spaceports, as well as the scientists and infrastructure to do such a thing. I am sure there are many other ventures that could be done such as that, but I think space would be the best example, since it's not exploited, and there's plenty of profit potential out there (energy production, resources, R&D, ect). Heck, America was discovered under the same principles and exploited for those reasons - why not foster the same kind of ideal to the next level? |
Did you miss the boat to the post-industrial economy? Our economy has shifted away from manufacturing a long time ago. You are looking at things from the perspective of the 1940's or 1950's.
I don't know how broadly you are defining invent, but you really are missing out on a lot. Creating something is huge in our market and makes us a strong player in the global economy. California, for interest, produces about 1/5th or 1/6 of our total GDP. Guess what they by and large produce, culture! American culture is one of our largest exports.
Our economy is now a sevice based economy. We have law firms that represent people across the world, because the services we offer are so much better than anyone else's. Its the same thing with our financial firms (well, maybe not anymore), our corporate conglomerates, and all kinds of other businesses you can imagine. You think Chili's is rolling in the dough because they "invented" or "manufactured" something? No, they found a market that they could capitalize on and they filled that niche. America's economy runs on services. Every year it runs less and less on manufacturing.
Why do you think the financial sector getting hit so hard had such a domino effect? Its because our financial institutions are so deeply rooted across the globe. What you are talking about is not how you become a major player in the global economy once you are already a major player in the global economy. We have long passed our industrial phase, and don't expect us to go back now.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
