There’s an interesting post from Hellasious on Sudden Debt about the fundamental wrongs in the US economy (which shades over into general considerations on the American Way of Life).
His 3 facts are these:
Fact 1: There is too much debt in the economy to be properly serviced by the earned income generated. Total debt has doubled as a percentage of disposable income in the past 25 years.His conclusions are rather gloomy (basically, the end of the US as a super-power), though he does offer a way out — save more, spend less, don’t get in debt, move from consuming/servicing to producing.
Fact 2: Saving has disappeared in the US. Every penny earned is consumed.
Fact 3: There was wholesale removal of manufacturing from the economic base after 2000 (aka China’s “miracle”). Millions of well paid jobs were replaced by service sector jobs, many in the very low-pay area of leisure and hospitality (waiters, chambermaids, etc.).
The comments are thoughtful, particularly the riposte to the original post’s suggestions that we should make ’supercomputers and fuel-cells’ — might it be said that we only want to make these that to allow us the leisure time…to spend more, consume more etc etc.
Everyone has their competing theories of how we’ve got into this mess, but think we’re probably in for austere time — which may be no bad thing.
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