Meantime China, with four times America's population, graduates one point four million engineers a year, versus less than three hundred thousand in America. Even Russia, with barely half America's population, trains almost twice as many engineers as the US.
For now, American companies profit by manufacturing in low-wage countries such as China, India and Bangladesh, while selling at high prices in Europe and North America. But for how much longer? Already Chinese automobile manufacturers are selling their own cheaply manufactured products in the US and other Western nations. For American manufacturing to remain viable, there will have to be a drastic devaluation of the US dollar and other Western currencies, versus the currencies of the Asian manufacturing economies. But first most of the West's manufacturing base will be crushed out of existence by low-wage Third World competition.
And with devaluation of the dollar will come an end to America's ability to finance wars to extend its control throughout the world. Then America will have a choice: to become an economic basket case, or revert to the mores and educational standards of the early post-WW2 era when America led the world in scientific research and technological innovation.
But whatever the US does now will not restore the country to the position of industrial dominance that it held in the 1950's. It will merely save the United States from becoming poorer than India, poorer than Bangladesh, and poorer even, perhaps than Nigeria, which by the end of the present century will have a .larger population than the US.
What I am interested in, CS, is the way you continue to analyze these things in terms of the nation state.
ReplyDeleteChina, USA, Britain, India, Bangladesh.
Which nation trains more engineers, has the fastest and best this and that, the cheapest labor, etc.
"But whatever the US does now will not restore the country to the position of industrial dominance that it held in the 1950's. It will merely save the United States from becoming poorer than"... A list of nation states.
What's going to happen is all the nation states are going to be at the same economic, social, and political level everywhere on planet earth. There will be a globalized system. It isn't going to matter any more if China has a better this or that than it matters now California had a GDP greater than most nations, while Mississippi was poor and backward. Saying you live in China will be the equivalent of saying you live on first avenue compared to someone else saying they live on West Altetega Street. Saying your name is Hsiah Luong compared to Pete McCalley will be no more important than saying your SSN# is 676-466-3621 versus 765-222-5382.
People need to feel at home? Tell it to Martin Heidegger!
Klaus Swabb of the World Economic Forum would undoubtedly agree with you. Question is, how you gonna get rid of the nation state, and with it the the vast range in culture and per capita income?
DeleteThe US or China, among others would no doubt agree to lay down the law to everyone, but who's going to accept what the wannabe hegemon has to say? And without global governance, the cultural and economic gulf between Luxembourg and South Sudan will persist and with it the vast differences in economic, social and political characteristics.
And even with global governance cultural and economic differences among the former nations of the Earth will persist, just as, within the United States, New York will long remain so much wealthier than Mississippi.
"Question is, how you gonna get rid of the nation state, and with it the the vast range in culture and per capita income?'
DeleteNo problem whatsoever.
Everyone everywhere has tastes in music and entertainment already dictated by Hollywood and media conglomerates of enormous size and scope.
People in Sudan and West Germany dance and hum to Britney Spears or whatever other thing is concoction du jour. They don't complain about it anymore, either.
Occasionally, for a few fuddy duddies, there will be a farce performance of cultural tradition to demonstrate something or other I myself no longer recognize as meaningful or understood much by the fuddy duddies. They are just going through the motions, perhaps because of governmental support and funding, too.
The economic disparities can be and are being smoothed over.
China was, in 1949, backward economically. Now, a mere seventy-five years later, Wow Wow Wow. China is going to be the role model for the world, including the doddering USA. Our elite mind controllers have been very careful to keep the full extent of this transformation from seeping into American consciousness. And, sadly, that hasn't been very hard for them to do.
I don't know, man, but Klaus Schwab's words keep ringing in my head. Take a look at it. There is now-- due to the pandemic mismanagement -- rampant inflation. It is not benign. It only has to continue at this pace for a few more years, and most people are going to be wiped out. They aren't going to, as Schwab said, "own anything". Are they thus going to be happy?
I may not be able to convincingly state my case in a sentence or two, but I believe a great deal of the misery we see now in the USA is structurally motivated. For example, the problem of homelessness. Wow is this wild, frightening, and bewildering. Why do we have this problem on a mass scale? Is it because we literally cannot create housing? No, that's absurd. I believe it has to do with shifts in who is in control and to what extent. Once control is entirely and securely within the hands of the global elite, the homeless will be relocated to relatively nice condos or whatever, THAT THEY WILL RENT. They might even rent it with a government-supplied check to them each month. They won't own anything but they'll have plenty of time and entertainment technology and I do doubt they'll care about "freedom".
Your greatly underestimate the resistance by the people of every political jurisdiction to the submergence of their identity with some other group. If that were not so, why has Alaska failed to make the logical decision to join with Canada. What! Biden may be an embarrassment, but to be ruled by that jerk Trudeau and accept Canada's sissy gun-control laws. You gotta be kidding.
DeleteAs for everyone living in public housing. Pfui!
If people were going to do more than piss and moan, they would have started resisting back in 2008, during the financial crisis and the government-sponsored bailouts.
ReplyDeleteFrom that moment on, they were being systematically weakened and disenfranchised. If you're going to fight, you have to start fighting while you still have some of your strength. Once you're bled out, you're doomed.
The rate of sapping their energies increased dramatically during the pandemic.
I look around me and I find it almost hard to believe how much our standard of living has declined. It is visibly lower. I'm not the only one who isn't blind. Yet is there any level of organizing? Not that I see. I don't see re-electing Trump in 2024 as what's going to save us. Judging by people's behaviors and actions, their full faith is on this extraordinary clown and conman.
People hold on to the idea misfortune is for others. Others will become homeless, not them. Others will be forced to live in public housing, not them. Others will be forced into uselessness, and welfare, not them. But these numbers will be attrited slowly and by and by it will be them. There will be plenty of fear tactics and cattle prods applied along the way.
Alaska is a weird place. Most of the "Alaskans" have been "Alaskans" three years or less. Plus, whatever the politicians might like us to believe, we're a colony, not a state. At the higher levels, our leadership is owned by the oil companies. The populist figures such as Sarah Palin are populist in name only. (Palin loved calling our senator Murkowski a "RINO" -- a republican in name only.) It is all a big joke. The "Alaskans" are full of piss and vinegar until the reality and harshness of Alaska makes itself felt. Then-- back to California!
Many people would resist if they knew how. But what do you do to resist?
DeleteWhen Justin Trudeau was elected eight years ago he vowed during the campaign to respect the $10-billion upper limit for deficits in 2016-17 and 2017-18 unless the economic situation got a lot worse.
Well, guess what, since then, the economic situation must have got a lot worse because now, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, the federal deficit is headed for $46.5 billion in 2023-24, up from an estimated $38.7 billion for 2022-23.
It's true, folks don't have to keep voting for liberal scoundrels, but mostly the opposition has looked as tricky or worse. If the Conservatives win at the next election, and if the don't they never will, they can hardly do worse than the Liberals, what's more, Poilievre, the Conservative leader, evidently has an IQ several times that of Trudeau, which is surely a plus.