Posted by
Egon on Saturday, October 11, 2008 8:31:35 AM
Mick O CA - MerryColin AZ - Formerrep A - Rosemary RI - DC NJ - Truly spot on posts! Thank you!
We should start focusing on producing true wealth again.
The predominance of "Service" industries today don't produce real wealth. Selling hamburgers to each other, healthcare, retail, financial services etc. just shuffle wealth around, do not create it.
The production of tangible goods create wealth. We have created an ever growing hostile environment for industries and they have, rightly so, emmigrated to friendlier ones.
Of the two major industries left, Housing which is flat on it's face and will take a decade or more to stand up again and Agriculture, excessively taxesd and over regulated to a point where many are calling it quits (especially the labor intensive sector) or moving offshore like we did several years ago.
The production of tangible goods like automobiles, TV sets, computers, aircraft, food and, yes, energy is what we can call "creating wealth".
We must urgently reverse the trend of over taxing and over regulating our economy or, pretty soon, we will also depend on imports for most of our food.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are looming huge in the not so distant future. To the tune of 50+ Trillion Dollars!
The way our weak and incompetent politicians are behaving, we can expect that "bubble" to burst in a scant 10 or 15 years from now and it will make today's financial market woes seem like "petty cash".
We have had a pretty good ride with foreign investors' trusting us by investing their savings over here and allowing our banks to handle their money. These practices have now come to a screeching halt. Our credibility, strictly based on our past glory, is no more. Foreigners will think hard before investing in this country again or using our banking system to handle their funds.
The concentration of Global banking in New York is being diluted now between several markets like London, Luxembourg, Tokyo, Hong Kong and others.
The only solution for us in the not so long term is to aggressively get government off the backs of private enterprise in a big way to lure productive business back to America and grow our economy to where we can prosper again and meet most of our obligations down the road.
The elimination of corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes and curtailment of at least 70% of our frivolous regulations (mostly meant to justify bureaucracies) would go a long way towards prosperity and bring back 10 or more Trillion Dollars for productive capital investments in five years or less.