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What Does America Need To Do To Survive? 2/17/2010 11:05:43 AM
A look at recommendations made in my book "The Obama Chronicles: Stories From the Heartland" February 16, 2010 "What Does America Need To Do To Survive?"
The first area to look into are those pillars of American success I identified above: Cheap Labor, Cheap Energy, Cheap Food and country filled with natural resources.
To this list I will now add, a decent birth rate or immigrant flow, small town and technical green enclave investment, income distribution reform, land distribution reforms, banking and financial reforms and a re-thinking of the purposes of an economy.
I have tackled some of these issues in my book "The Obama Chronicles: Stories From the Heartland. We plunge into the detail tomorrow.
February, 17, 2010
Cheap labor built this country, from the Chinese coming to lay the track for the railroads, to the Africans working the cotton in the South, to the immigrants from Europe who cleared the land in the west, who worked the factories, fought the wars and made America what it is today. Needless to say the labor scene is not the same today. Cheap labor has been outsourced to other countries. The American middle class has not only been abandoned but 40% of American savings were taken from them and their homes, their major asset, is now selling for half the purchase price to those very same interests which took the savings and the land.
We are heading for a two class system, therefore, the rich and the poor. Certainly that is the pattern becoming evident in many of our cities. In addition, there is the lack of labor, cheap or otherwise which is the demographic issue. Americans are not having children, nor are Europeans and the demographics are clear: By 2050, some demography studies show, the reproducing population of Russia, Britain, France and Italy will in essence cease to exist and the traditional populations will be replaced by immigrants from other countries. The same trends are evident in the United States as well. Latin American birth rates outstrip those of Americans and demography become destiny, in a flice.
So as we age in this country we see a younger population replacing an older one, of a very different stripe. Our children will learn more Spanish in the short run but English will have a resurgence in the next generation. What is to be done in this context is now our challenge.
The first issue in the short run is the economy. The country will, and already has in certain communities become a two-economy society. Why should I nor can I compete for basic living necessities with individuals earning 2-3 times more than I do?
A two-economy solution, whether created or defacto realized seems inevitable. The rich will likely not be allowed to shop in the second economy where the price of necessities can be artificially raised in a so-called "free market." This solution creates a low-cost economy of necessities for those who provide the labor. This makes sense and many do this to survive anyway today. Thrift shops, discount stores, Walmarts all attest to the fact that the middle class cannot afford middle class and upper middle class prices.
The second pillar of revamping the labor force (the one above creates an economy which works for them) is to have that labor force become more self-sufficient and not be susceptible to being wiped out by Wall Street machinations and global trends in far away countries. This means the re-claiming of productive land and small towns where they they can be supportive of a laboring population. Bartering, plus low living costs, plus a land reform policy can make the country side more productive and sustainable especially in the context of greening these small towns to produce energy for re-sale to the grid.
Now you have idle workers in small towns all over the country. We can make those small towns productive with massive investments. How you say is that possible? More tomorrow.
