As long time posters here may recall, for years I posted that US economic policy had moved away from what worked in the 50's and 60's, and that some emerging economies were using that same policy to catch up. In the 50s and 60's, the US was a leader in R&D, infrastructure, and education. Those productive investments paid off big time in the following decades. Yes, taxes were higher, but they went into productive investments.
Counties that have been growing faster than the US such as China, Korea, Taiwan, etc. are just using the US's discarded playbook. Go to those countries and it's like going to the set of the Jetsons. Super fast trains, cheap high speed internet, elevated highways, incredible airports. The same difference can be seen in R&D, patent production, and the numbers of STEM graduates being produced.
While successful developing economies thrived by copying the US, we began implementing tax and economic policies to transfer the country's accumulated wealth into fewer and fewer hands instead of continuing to make productive investments. R&D investments declined, infrastructure deteriorated, college became incredibly expensive, wages stagnated, and massive wealth moved into a few hands along with control of our political system. Hello, Citizen’s United.
As this process has been happening over decades, like frogs in warm water, we could ignore it, and there was plenty of cheap debt to use as a palliative. But now the water seems to have gotten hot enough for even the WSJ to notice that we are becoming less competitive. Massive student debt, broken bridges, slow trains, bad roads, low wages are other clues.
If we really want America First, we should stop blaming other countries, and take a look at systemic changes closer to home.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/steppi...t=amg1hxhej1jan33&reflink=article_email_share
Counties that have been growing faster than the US such as China, Korea, Taiwan, etc. are just using the US's discarded playbook. Go to those countries and it's like going to the set of the Jetsons. Super fast trains, cheap high speed internet, elevated highways, incredible airports. The same difference can be seen in R&D, patent production, and the numbers of STEM graduates being produced.
While successful developing economies thrived by copying the US, we began implementing tax and economic policies to transfer the country's accumulated wealth into fewer and fewer hands instead of continuing to make productive investments. R&D investments declined, infrastructure deteriorated, college became incredibly expensive, wages stagnated, and massive wealth moved into a few hands along with control of our political system. Hello, Citizen’s United.
As this process has been happening over decades, like frogs in warm water, we could ignore it, and there was plenty of cheap debt to use as a palliative. But now the water seems to have gotten hot enough for even the WSJ to notice that we are becoming less competitive. Massive student debt, broken bridges, slow trains, bad roads, low wages are other clues.
If we really want America First, we should stop blaming other countries, and take a look at systemic changes closer to home.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/steppi...t=amg1hxhej1jan33&reflink=article_email_share
