The article only considers the short term. Like a drug addict, the economy is bound to go through withdrawal symptoms. If we borrow like crazy
and the econonmy goes through a short term recovery, then the elite will put out the propaganda that we don't need budget cuts, that we
can afford the deficit and the debt, all the while getting richer off the interest, while the common people continue to work harder to pay for it. What do you think got us here in the first place? This constantly growing deficit and its interest payments have a lot to do with our problem.
An additional contributor to our problem is the shipping of a large portion of our factories overseas. Another short term solution. The wealthy get rich off of the slave labor of countries that don't have labor laws and we get to buy cheap products, but the long term result is that we don't have jobs with which to buy anything any more, whether produced here or overseas. I guess in a global free market economy, like the waters of the ocean, the disadvantaged countries are likely to improve their standard of living, while the countries of people who have nearly everything they need and are living comfortably (e.g. the U.S.) are bound to come down closer to the level of the poor countries. In the end every country that is properly managed will be living at approxiamately the same standard of living. In other words, one day the poor Chinese workers will be earning the same wage as the U.S. citizen, and vice versa. Are you ready for that leveling? The U.S., even in the midst of its economic turmoil, still has a population that is living pretty comfortably. Nearly every one is living in a house, or a pretty nice apartment. Nearly everyone has a T.V. and a cell phone. Nearly everyone has a car, etc. etc., oh, not to mention, everyone is eating! Are you ready to come closer to the Chinese standard of living? When they are done exploiting 4 billion people in China to the point where their wages have come a little closer to ours, they will be off to Africa or some other frontier where they can exploit people for much less than the Chinese.
That's not to say that the U.S. citizen has to become more poor. There may be enough wealth in the world
for everyone to live comfortably, especially with a world full of innovative bright minds that are always figuring out how to improve things.
But as long as our elite control America and the Chinese elite control China, the playing field will never be fair for the average worker.
We can continue to use a large portion of our labor to give welfare to the elite in the form of large interest payments from our government.
Still a third contributor to our economic problems is illegal immigrants. In some ways this is much more deabilitating than the competition above, because the illegal immigrant gains unfair advantages over the U.S. citizen. He doesn't have to pay taxes (unless he has stolen your SSN, that's another whole issue) so companies can afford to pay him much less to begin with. By his very entry he also, some how, mysteriously gains immediate rights to services that even I was not able to obtain after paying taxes into the system and working hard for the same company for 23 years. (I didn't get disability because "it wasn't a permanent injury". I didn't get worker's comp "because you can't prove the injury is work related." I didn't get unemployment "because you are not medically fit to seek work. Therefore you cannot qualify for unemployment because one of the requirements is that you apply for work twice every week. It doesn't matter that you are applying, you will never get one of those jobs because you are medically unqualified to get one." Incidently, I didn't get a severance pay either.) So here a person can sneak into our country, who has no history with the country, who has never paid taxes and thereby has never built up an "account" with us, and yet they have rights to our schools, medical services, etc. Someone has to pay for those services. Guess who? Another form of coperate welfare, as legal workers pay for services for illegal immigrants through their tax burden so that cooperations don't have to pay a wage that is high enough to make the job attractive to a U.S. citizen (that has, you know, all that baggage, like part of his wages will go to taxes.)
One more word about illegal immigrants. (And let's be clear about one thing, I hold nothing against any of them as persons, but the fact is we have to talk some common sense here, we have to talk sustainablility. If you want to be charitable to people who come from other countries who are at a disadvantage, you are free to give as much of your own money as you want to. But don't commit all of us, against our will, through an unsustainable govermental policy.) I live and work in Thailand. Despite the fact that I have worked for the same school for years and have both a visa and a work permit, every few months I have to check in with the government and tell them again what my address is. Every year I have to jump through the hoops, fill out the paperwork, and sit in the immigration office a couple of times for hours with an employee of the school who verifies that they are employing me and that they can't do without my services (e.g. a Thai cannot do accurately what I do.) If at some point the Thais decide they don't want me any more I would understand that is all part of the process, and go somewhere where people do want me.
Entering the country illegally has never even occurred to me. And even if I did enter the country illegally, I would understand right from the start that I was illegal. I would always know that I didn't belong here, and I would always know that sooner or later I may be caught. I would always understand that if I got caught I would immediately be deported. You would not hear me saying, "But, oh, it's not fair! I have been here 20 years now. I have a wife and kids here now. It's not fair, it's not right to deport me!" I would have known I was illegal all along, and everything I did here I did with that knowledge and with that risk. I would have no grounds to cry "unfair". So, sorry, illegal immigrants knew all along they would someday be deported. Getting away with breaking the law for many years doesn't justify it or change the position.
So, the above three things are in my view three very large contributors of our economic woes, 1.)The budget deficit with its slavery of interest payments, which is making some people very wealthy 2.) Factories overseas. 3.) Millions upon millions of illegal immigrants who don't have to pay taxes (except for those who have stolen our identities) and who have immediate access to services that have not been earned.
Al
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