Sobering statistics

China has 24 times the reserves of the USA;  USA has 21 times more debt than China.

Trade deficit comes from consumer goods and oil, and the deficit is large

Please note the captions.  We are deep in debt and the cause is from purchasing consumer goods with borrowed money.

This is a phenomenon which I noticed well back in the eighties.  All during that time to this, we were told that the trade deficit didn't matter.  Yet all this time, for most people, living standards have been static or in actual decline.

Now, if you combine the trade deficit with the budget deficit, all you seem to get is the ability to buy stuff that isn't productive, like consumer goods.  These consumer goods are- for the most part- manufactured overseas, and thus do not help Americans get and keep good paying jobs.  All the deficit spending seems to do is to encourage spending which helps put people in other countries to work.  But look what happening here.

If you also consider the very low savings rate, the ability to invest goes by the wayside.  Now you are looking at people who are living only to consume-- as opposed to producing income and growth.  Is there any wonder the economy is in such poor shape?

But Krugman and his ilk want to spend like drunken sailors.  The money doesn't stay here though.  He isn't worried about debt, but how does that debt get paid back?  Somebody has to pay for these consumer goods.  It isn't financially wise to take on so much debt, but that is what this country has been doing on an gargantuan scale.  It isn't just the government, it is also the people.  But the government should be responsible so as to show the way.  The only way that Krugman and his ilk are showing is how to be stupid and poor.

Educational standards have been slipping for the longest time.  Any attempt to improve that is met with fierce resistance.  Just like any attempt to improve financial responsibility.  Higher taxes?  Please.  We tried that before.  Going after the rich is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.  It makes one meal and then what?  Who knows what, if anything, is being taught in our schools these days.

China is increasing its wealth and living standards.  We are going the other way.

China is building nuclear reactors.  China will do space and China will do LFTRs.  In the meantime, we may be lucky if anybody even knows about  or cares about space.  The stupid media makes everyone afraid of nuclear energy.  But the media is only corporations which can be owned by foreigners.  They don't necessarily have the people's best interests at heart.  But the people listen to these stupidities.

Yeah, that may sound "xenophobic".  But what's wrong with being patriotic?  If you lose your country what will you have?  A country whose leadership has so little regard for its people is on the way out.  Who in this country is going to notice and actually care about changing this?  The only thing they seem to know is is to go to DC and ask for another handout because that is what the media wants to report about and wants us to think about ourselves.

This used to be a free and proud country.  I don't know what it is now, but it isn't going to be prosperous nor free much longer if these trends continue.

But I wrote it back then.  It has only gotten worse.


Update:

It would seem that this post is in contradiction to the line of thought expressed in the post about the Luddites.  But machines are not creative.  There has to be a creative impulse in order that the machines can do something with the inspiration that can only flow from the human mind.  My hunch is that people will find something to do with themselves, even if it isn't what we traditionally call work.  But that time has not yet arrived.  In the meantime, we all still need to work.  However, there are way too many people in this society who have gotten the idea that they don't have to work anymore.  Now whether or not that day truly arrives is another question.  But the ones bringing that reality into being won't have much use for people who don't know anything and don't want to know anything.