quote:
The American economy has enjoyed ... low-hanging fruit since at least the 17th century...Yet during the last 40 years, that low-hanging fruit started disappearing, and we started pretending it was still there. We have failed to recognize that we are at a technological plateau
Comment:
There's some talk about American decline and so forth. Yesterday, I spent a good deal of time reading about the decline of the Roman Empire. Most of it wasn't new to me, but some of it was. I was particularly struck by the story of Commodus, the son of the last "Good Emperor", Marcus Aurelius.
One theory I have is about leadership. Clearly, Commodus was not a good leader. Another example: it doesn't take much looking, as far as a Texan is concerned, to know about Santa Ana. There's another bad leader. But then, you look at Sam Houston and see a good one. A good leader can make a nation, a bad leader can break one. To me, a lot of a nation's fate is dependent upon its leadership.
America has had some good leaders. Fortunately, there has not been anything like Commodus nor Santa Ana. Some presidents have been excellent, others have been quite mediocre. There may be some argument, particularly on partisan grounds, about our most recent presidents. I don't like Obama, but he is not in that really bad class. Not yet. I don't think his ideas of income redistribution will be successful in getting the economy moving forward again. It looks like he will run on that theme in the upcoming election. If he is successful with it, he just may preside over a collapse. That collapse will be more on him than anyone else, even if he did inherit a bad situation. Reagan inherited a bad situation-- it isn't an excuse for continued failure.
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