Humility is a pre-requisite for the globally lagging US economy to catch up:
Posted: January 10, 2009 Filed under: A service economy is doomed to fail, Ifrastructure boost needed but not enough, Obama's economic plan must enhance competiveness, The concord coalition | Tags: As producerUS must catch-up, US lagging global economy Leave a comment »
The United State officialdom, the private sector, and politicians, MUST own up to the fact that its economy is lagging behind its global competitors!
The United States MUST realize that it is in a catch-up mode, and that it is not the industrial leader that it once was, except perhaps in the highly limited area of weapon development and manufacturing.
No one would argue with the fact that for a national economy to be a competitive player in the Twenty-first Century global economy, it must generate competitive, desirable, and sellable products.
Since in 2008/9 the United States is lagging behind the global community in making viable commercial products, it is time that Americans accept the fact that our designers, products, and workers, are not necessarily the best in the world.
As long as America, including government, members of the private section, and politician, continue to insist that America is best and therefore does not need to improve, catch-up and surpass global competition, the United States will remain behind and fall further back of competition.
For those who question America’s inferior state as a maker and supplier of products, just view a few facts.
In the last few decades the United States fell behind in a number of areas that it once dominated, some, but not all, include:
Computer hardware
Shipbuilding
Steel production
Appliance and other electrical and electronic production
Clothing
Shoes
Chemical
Medicine
Automotive
There are many other areas in which the United States once was a clear leader, and is now an “also-run,” or a follower A case in point where foreign producers caught up is the aircraft industry.
The reasons that the United States fell behind are many, not the least of them is arrogance that kept the United States from realizing that it has no monopoly on brains, and that others can catch and surpass it. Another significant reason is greed; United States companies elected to sacrifice long-term leadership by going to countries with low labor costs to enhance short-term profitability.
The message to President-elect Obama is that, at the risk of loosing popularity, he must inform industry that it must catch up with others who are indeed not inferior, and perhaps even superior. We need to admit that the United States must play catch-up so that it can become a viable product economy.
As part of any economic plan MUST include provision to aid US industry become an effective product generator.
Obama’s “infrastructure” infusion; DOA without product strategy!
Posted: December 24, 2008 Filed under: A service economy is doomed to fail, debate & financial responsibility, Ifrastructure boost needed but not enough, The concord coalition | Tags: " economy will fail, "Service, Industrial base imperative, only industrial boost can avert dioression 2 Comments »Obama’s Recovery: The danger of product-less society!
In the early 1990’s, to very smart American, one Democrat, the other Republican, founded a group they called the Concord Coalition. The late Paul Ethemios Tsongas, a brilliant Democrat, and Warren Rudman, a standout lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, felt that the United States economy is moving on a track leading to long-term disaster.
Paul Tsongas who at one time attempted to run for President, was extremely concerned about a very fundamental phenomena that by its nature could destroy an economic system. Tsongas and members of his coalition insisted that models of the industrial revolution were a sound foundation for a sustaining economy, but that when the phenomena of an industrial product economy is switched to a service-economy; catastrophic results should be anticipated.
Since the 1990’s when the United States started to lose significant manufacturing jobs to Far Eastern countries, many slow-down, and minor recession occurred. However, the catastrophe that the late Paul Tsongas spoke of appears to have begun during the waning months of President George W. Bush Presidency.
Since the backbone of America’s industrial economy its automobile business, the recent decline of auto industry fortunes is a clear signal that the United States economy may be suffering from issues that Paul Tsongas discussed some two decades earlier.
President-elect Barak Obama is proposing an economic stimulus package that will yield three million jobs, and infuse money into an ailing economy. The plan proposed by the Obama people is an essential step to stop the present economy to hemorrhage and become an actual depression. The Obama plan is also important as part of maintaining an acceptable quality of life for the American people. The plan deals with fixes to the Nation’s infrastructure, an essential and overdue undertaking.
Some of the problems with the Obama plan have to do with the fact that it will not yield products. The Obama plan would be based on people serving other people. The plan, rather than to generate sellable commodities that are needed to fuel an economy in today global environment, is designed to improve quality of life, not to generate income generating products.
Since the Obama plan would inject some trillion dollars into the economy, one may look for some product-generating fall out. The three million new employees are likely buy cars, appliances, and houses, all items that are required for a successful industrial economy.
Many question remain. The trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money will have to come from some credible source; what is that source? How will the money be repaid?
If President-elect Obama is serious about fixing the ailing economy, a production recovery element of an economic plan must be developed in parallel with the infra structure infusion, or the present declined will continue and become worse.
