John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN INVESTMENTWATCH
“Middle Class Erosion: 33 Million Americans Will Not Travel During The Holidays Because They Can’t Afford To Do So”
You are crying, as my mother used to say, over spilt milk.
The American Middle Class has been on the decline for decades.
The truth is that it was artificially fattened up in the glory days following WWII when the US had virtually no competition on the planet.
That was the fantasy time of "the American Dream."
It was unique. It is gone, and forever.
Now, there are many countries vying for their place in the sun, and the truth is that in many things America cannot compete with them.
Subsidies, whether direct or indirect, and special temporary privileged position, vis-a-vis others, does not breed competitive abilities and skills.
I think we all know that from our everyday lives.
So, why does anyone think it should be any different for a nation? It's not.
"The American Dream," always reflected a temporary special privileged position. It was never possible that it should be sustained indefinitely.
Trouble is that someone like Trump is playing politics with the nonsense of saying that it is possible.
"Make America Great Again" is just a new slogan for a tired, inaccurate, and out-of-date notion.
It much resembles the blind faith of a religion or cult.
There is absolutely no substance to it because it reflects fantasy notions in a changed reality, a world immensely different than that of, say, 1959.
The danger with it is that it will generate a permanent state of the kind of combative economic policies pursued by Trump. They lead nowhere but ruin for everyone.
The notion that you can enrich your own nation at the expense of others derives from centuries ago with Mercantilism and Imperialism.
It simply cannot work in a modern world, except to help destroy global economic and trade foundations, ultimately making everyone poorer.
Trump’s approach rather resembles - given America's vast and irresponsible accumulated debt and the weaknesses we see in many economies - a deliberate effort to bring on a new Great Depression.
