I find it terribly amusing when people go out of their way to point to something that is short term and use that as a means to say that the world will be X Y or Z based on extrapolating linearly to the nth+ridiculous degree. The current favourite is kicking the USA or its dollar (currently). Previously, it was Peak Oil. Or Japan taking over the world. Or...
It doesn't really matter what it is. People have a habit of taking the NOW and extrapolating it ridiculously. Every single economic BOOM that the US has seems to be one of these. The ones I saw were the PC boom & aerospace boom of the 1980s. Then there was the internet boom/dotcoms of the 90s. Then, my favourite, the real estate boom of the Oughts. Everyone gets this idea that it will go on and on and on. Never a bust. Yet EVERY single time there is one.
Right now the recession we are in and the status of the dollar. The current woes are, frankly, to have been expected. There is such a thing as the business cycle. The US with the real estate boom - and bust - is going through that cycle right now. What makes it worse was the fact that the last boom was done with credit that was above and beyond what was a good idea. That importation of currency for the credit is what has caused the dollar free fall as the economy went pop, the money flowed out of the country. That, of course, made things a bit worse. The cycle will turn though and we'll climb back out. The Next Boom wil rise and crest and fall. And again. And again. To make the claim that This Is The End of The USA is silly. Sinking ship, pah.
I have to confess I do think there are nontrivial issues with the United States. Our educational system is in shambles. We are getting fat. We have a political system that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over polarized again. We have a large underclass that we don't dare speak of in anything but contempt. We have a medical system that's mildly foobed. We also have nontrivial social security and medicare problem racing towards us.
All of them are addressable. All of them can be fixed. In fact, the system is moving to do just that. Declaring that the ship is sinking is disingenius at best.
It doesn't really matter what it is. People have a habit of taking the NOW and extrapolating it ridiculously. Every single economic BOOM that the US has seems to be one of these. The ones I saw were the PC boom & aerospace boom of the 1980s. Then there was the internet boom/dotcoms of the 90s. Then, my favourite, the real estate boom of the Oughts. Everyone gets this idea that it will go on and on and on. Never a bust. Yet EVERY single time there is one.
Right now the recession we are in and the status of the dollar. The current woes are, frankly, to have been expected. There is such a thing as the business cycle. The US with the real estate boom - and bust - is going through that cycle right now. What makes it worse was the fact that the last boom was done with credit that was above and beyond what was a good idea. That importation of currency for the credit is what has caused the dollar free fall as the economy went pop, the money flowed out of the country. That, of course, made things a bit worse. The cycle will turn though and we'll climb back out. The Next Boom wil rise and crest and fall. And again. And again. To make the claim that This Is The End of The USA is silly. Sinking ship, pah.
I have to confess I do think there are nontrivial issues with the United States. Our educational system is in shambles. We are getting fat. We have a political system that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over polarized again. We have a large underclass that we don't dare speak of in anything but contempt. We have a medical system that's mildly foobed. We also have nontrivial social security and medicare problem racing towards us.
All of them are addressable. All of them can be fixed. In fact, the system is moving to do just that. Declaring that the ship is sinking is disingenius at best.
1 comment:
But it's some people's job to say that the ship is sinking! If they didn't say the ship was sinking they would be out of a job. Are you against jobs in this time of economic crisis and joblessness the likes of which have never been seen in the entire history of the multi-verse?!!!!!!!!!!! [Insert as many exclamation points as necessary.]
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