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America Now Extremely Vulnerable Economy in Crisis Jobs are being lost in manufacturing and replaced in service-oriented sectors like retail, healthcare, and government - sectors that don't create value, but merely exchange wealth, which is at the same time being siphoned out of our economy by massive import imbalances with foreign countries.... With current budget deficits so high and increasing we have now become dependent on foreign loans to support our military, to receive tax refunds, and to fund our governments daily operations. Incredible as this sounds, without these loans our government could not pay it's bills and we could be forced to devalue our money. Many Americans are beginning to recognize how vulnerable we are: We are facing changing conditions and threats while spreading ourselves dangerously thin. We are trying to manage problems and uncertainties that we may not be able to properly handle as we dismantle our industrial infrastructure, outsource our manufacturing, and try to fight three wars. How can we cope with all of these threats while depending on foreign support for our strength and funding?
How can we reconcile these two opposing differences? We can't of course. GDP is no longer an accurate measure of our sustainable national economic health because it is now driven primarily by debt - personal, government, and trade, and by services rather than production. Foreign ownership and control of our key industries is also distorting the reality of who is benefiting from so-called economic growth. As further evidence of this, jobs are being lost in manufacturing and replaced in service-oriented sectors like retail, healthcare, and government - sectors that don't create value, but merely exchange wealth, which is at the same time being siphoned out of our economy by massive import imbalances with foreign countries. If our leaders do not recognize reality, how can we hope to plan for the future? If America is to continue to be the land of opportunity, what must we do to insure our position in this changing world? The first step is to understand the true condition of our country, which is inexorably heading towards uncontrollable problems and uncertainties that are now making us extremely vulnerable. SOURCE: Economy in Crisis Articles: Reflections On General Electric's Global Strategy |
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