moll.
Learn to science.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2008
- Messages
- 3,545
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2008
Is anyone else shitting themselves about the future of the American economy?
Their current economic growth is based almost purely upon short-term consumption, house prices continue their stagnant or negative growth and there is a growing divide between the rich and poor, such that many regions of central America resemble slumtowns whilst the urban coastal centres continue to thrive and expand. In fact, according to Citigroup, the top 1% of wealthy Americans control more money than the bottom 95% combined.
The education system is shot to shit, with high-school dropouts increasing (up to 1.3 million a year) and tertiary educational institutes mass producing useless degress whilst leaving the recipients with a mountain of high-interest debt before they even start work. This at the same time when their entire human-capital needs an overhaul as the manufacturing industry rapidly declines and the former manufacturers need to retrain for the services industry.
Meanwhile, the federal deficit is spiralling out of control (expected to rise from 60% of GDP today to 82% by 2019) and to all appearances there exists neither the political will nor the social inclination to make the tough decision and tackle it head on. In fact, the right-wing and populist solution to this problem appears to be the exact same one which got us here; lower taxes and lower spending, when recent history has shown that doing one without the other exacerbates the problem and that the latter is incredibly difficult, practically and politically.
Alongside this exists the three and a half billion dollar lobby industry (not including campaign contributions) which ensures that it doesn't matter whether it's a Democrat or Rebuplican in office, there will still be men with vested interests whispering in the President's ear. As an example, the current Assistant Secretary (Financial Stability), Herbert Allison, is also the former CEO and President of Fannie Mae and former President and board member of Merrill Lynch.
We are fucked.
Their current economic growth is based almost purely upon short-term consumption, house prices continue their stagnant or negative growth and there is a growing divide between the rich and poor, such that many regions of central America resemble slumtowns whilst the urban coastal centres continue to thrive and expand. In fact, according to Citigroup, the top 1% of wealthy Americans control more money than the bottom 95% combined.
The education system is shot to shit, with high-school dropouts increasing (up to 1.3 million a year) and tertiary educational institutes mass producing useless degress whilst leaving the recipients with a mountain of high-interest debt before they even start work. This at the same time when their entire human-capital needs an overhaul as the manufacturing industry rapidly declines and the former manufacturers need to retrain for the services industry.
Meanwhile, the federal deficit is spiralling out of control (expected to rise from 60% of GDP today to 82% by 2019) and to all appearances there exists neither the political will nor the social inclination to make the tough decision and tackle it head on. In fact, the right-wing and populist solution to this problem appears to be the exact same one which got us here; lower taxes and lower spending, when recent history has shown that doing one without the other exacerbates the problem and that the latter is incredibly difficult, practically and politically.
Alongside this exists the three and a half billion dollar lobby industry (not including campaign contributions) which ensures that it doesn't matter whether it's a Democrat or Rebuplican in office, there will still be men with vested interests whispering in the President's ear. As an example, the current Assistant Secretary (Financial Stability), Herbert Allison, is also the former CEO and President of Fannie Mae and former President and board member of Merrill Lynch.
We are fucked.
