Widespread unemployment, fear, and consternation: Why now?
Three answers:
- Imperial over-reach. No nation can police the world forever. Empires once existed for loot. But on net the U.S. doesn’t take wealth from others. Instead, we spend our own wealth “protecting” others, often confusing our “national interest” for the interests of well-connected businesses. Hardly sustainable. Flag-waving about how good the U.S. is won’t stop the decline.
- Churning. We pretend to live in a “welfare state,” but wealth does not consistently go from rich to poor, to compensate for disadvantages. Wealth churns from one group to another, with each power shift. Trying to live at the expense of everyone else is not just a game for the poor. Government, without constitutional limits, inevitably shifts wealth haphazardly from the politically powerless (the least organized) to the politically powerful (the best organized) — with always a cut for the bureaucracy and political insiders. Of course such a system must decline, at some point.
- Sub-standard standards. In too many domains of life, we’ve almost given up. Certainly folks in high places act quite low. And the people who control our money, for example, don’t even pretend to keep a stable supply, a “standard”; instead, they pride themselves on “keeping bubbles going” … making unsustainability our standard policy.
But Americans do have an advantage over our Old World friends and foes. We have a history of dedication to better principles. Our best bet for recovery? Return to them.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Decline and Fall?”
Hi Paul,
I might add; Bank of America is going to lay off 30,000 employees. This will reward Bank of America shareholders.
But, there will be 30,000 fewer people working. That means 30,000 fewer people paying taxes and buying. Which will only continue the downward spiral.
This is not sustainable either.
American principles have been made subservient to global principles. For instance, we can’t stand up for freedom without being accused of Islamophobia. There was a time when we didn’t trade with most dictators. The free world and the Communist world were once trading blocs. Now money and knowledge are fungible and travel freely from us to those who seek our downfall. How do we return to our principles without giving up on globalization?
In the end, America will decline and fall for one reason: nothing good lasts forever.