Trade Deficit has crippled the United States of America

Yep, that's it

 

At the end of the day, those with the money control things. This has all happened for a very specific reason

 

It's what called the Golden Rule: Those with the gold make the rules.

It's nothing new, but it's becoming more blatant, and the peons are getting wetter.

 

Control. It's all about control

You create chaos, then there is a convenient power vacuum. Somebody steps in to fill that vacuum

Folks who would normally not believe it, will suspend disbelief and follow blindly

Think a drooling maniac like Adolf could have assumed power under normal circumstances?

Those with real money, will NOT lose. They gain, not only money but POWER and CONTROL.

This has been repeated so many times over human history

 

True, but I would like to modify part of your statement

Not only more blatant, but also more slick, more polished, more sophisticated. The greed is marketed as "good" and "patriotic" so the masses assume it to be true, especially if stirring jingles and patriotic images are also involved

A good analogy would be creating a slaughterhouse in which the cattle cheerfully walked into the plant, and cheerfully blew their brains out, because they believed it was the good and patriotic thing to do

And lets face it, because all their cow friends and neighbours were doing the same thing

 

Those who supported Adolf only lost at the end when the country lost the war and imploded. Otherwise, those on the winning side the wealthy always win

And lets face it, if you play both sides of the fence, you win either way. Lots of that goes on!

Again, I really don't see the US imploding like the former USSR. It's just that every year, things will be a bit worse, every generation will have less. There are many examples of this in central and south American nations

Those who may fight and/or scream the loudest are the spoiled ones who never had to work for it, who have the most sense of entitlement. But they really don't amount to much so that won't be an issue

The trailer trash would be another potential troublespot, eg "bubba factor." But not really, as long as they are entertained by the tube and the Internet, have plenty of cheap beer and pot, nothing much will happen there either

 

Error. Does not compute. Critical malfunction. Reboot systems. Undefined input.

I agree with the entirety of your post. Most of the public still holds onto the romantic fantasy of the American Dream. And yes it is still very real for many, but not most. Most will die in the same socioeconomic class they were born into. But it's like people who play the lotto, the same mindset works here.

A politician telling it like it is has to educate the public but also if he eschews his paymasters he won't have money for a campaign and he'll be destroyed in 30 second sound bites by those who are wined and dined by lobbyists. That is America in the 21st century. That is the current state of its political system.

And sure the average American has bought more and more stuff from China but we are all cogs in a machine, a single person cannot do anything and the "tragedy of the commons" concept ensures that ONLY with deliberate direction (i.e. leadership) can it change. Telling everyone that they've done this to themselves, even though it's true, does not identify a solution. A strong leader is needed who can change course.

Perhaps but I guarantee that you can find me an expect economist to say basically anything and I can find another who doesn't agree. I cannot find you a brain surgeon who thinks that a brain tumor should be removed by cutting off the big toe but I can find you economists with a wall of PhDs who disagree with each other on very simple matters like trickle-down effect and stimulus packages and deficits.

I don't think anybody wants to cause long term damage but it's that they don't care; short-term is what matters. The next quarter. Shareholders of public companies do not care _at all_ about the workers in that company. They care about their money and the company making more money. In the past that model has worked. Companies get huge, they hire workers, everybody wins. But now these US-based public companies are growing at the same time as hemorrhaging US labor. As I see it, they are skirting laws in a practical sense. If I open a manufacturing plant in the US let's not even bring pay into it, but I have to ensure a basic level of safety. I cannot spew crap into rivers, put employees next to coal furnaces without ear protection or lung protection. OR I can outsource my work to China where nobody really gives a hoot about any of that. And I still make my money. What can change this? Who knows.

 

My prediction is that things go as Jayman has said. The US gradually falls. It's not that it will go down necessarily but just not up as fast as some other countries, and things will average out. It's still an educated society with a high standard of living, common culture, good resources, etc. there's no real motivation for any kind of a country break-up. I just think things will get stale. It's going to remain the preeminent country to live in, but if we see where the trends are going I see less reason for optimism than there would have been a few decades back.

 

I do think there will be a rude awakening to many people as they realize that retiring at 65 without a penny to their name and expecting 15 years of paid retirement with very open access to increasingly costly healthcare is simply not accessible to the entire population. This is still something most consider sacrosanct.

10% of the economy now is new debt. It is abominable and cannot be maintained.

 

I'd rather see the current economic downturn as temporary, but I'm not so sure. I don't see the US ceasing to be a nation in the near future, but neither does it seem likely it will return to its former glory anytime soon. We've recently seen the biggest public demonstrations in decades, cities and states are going broke, people are increasingly angrier and more divided, basic costs are rising quickly while the value of assets, including the currency, are falling quickly. If I were to answer Malorn's question of 'When?', I'd say it's already begun.

 

That's unfortunate. I was only going by deficit, though... Technically this year actually it will be more like 15% of the economy. In just one year. The long term projections by the government are criminal in their optimism.

BTW, Corporate profits in Q4 were highest they've ever been in the US. And unemployment is still ~10. The fact is they don't need the people at the bottom. Unemployment is looking dour.

 

The problem is that millions at the "new bottom" used to be gainfully employed building homes, selling homes, brokering mortgages, selling mortgage securities, selling homeowner insurance, making appliances for new homes, building furniture for new homes, painting homes, building swimming pools, landscaping new homes, etc. I hope I gave you a small glimpse of the size of this interdependent economy.

Now that the bottom has dropped out of our housing-based economy, that huge percentage of the population has nowhere else to go. Business profits are up, but it would be stupid of us to expect the non-housing business sectors to absorb that large of a population over the course of only a few years. There are the practical considerations of demand, education, skills, job training, and location.

For example, the unemployed don't have the skills or training to work in clean rooms at Intel corp making microchips, and even if they did - there likely isn't enough demand for more people than they already have. So what, are you going to yell at Intel for taking big profits while there are out of work floor-tile installers, roofing contractors, and carpenters down the street? I know the common liberal reaction is to seethe at big business, but think about the larger picture for a minute.

Some places in the country have nearly full employment, not everyone can afford (or want) to move there. The problem is more complex than it looks on the surface, and no politician has the answer to fix it. If they claim to do so, they are terrible liars. This economic readjustment will take at least a decade.

 

It is economic rape. Just who is raping who though? In the USA we tend to get many products cheaper then they are in their original country and pay for it all with borrowed dollars that will possibly never be paid back.

Dumping to kill a local industry (like Japanese steel was done a number of years back) is pretty serious but when the industry is already dead (like the RAM industry in the USA) isn't dumping a gift?