The reason for America's past success.

[11:21:47 PM] WR: John Stossel says to abolish the FDA http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201109290038

[11:23:13 AM] RHG: If you look at the commentary that is coming from people like Stossel, it seems to me that a great many people in the US are actually examining every alternative much more closely. This whole issue of the Arab Spring has not been examined in the depth of impact it might have on the US by US commentators, and if the Government keeps on talking much longer about the Little Green Shoots, or the equivalent bullshit about how the economy is improving ......

It seems to have escaped most people that the economies that are improving are for those 3 billion in Asia, where they are still putting up pretty amazing growth figures.

[12:00:47 PM] WR: but why are the economies improving for those 3 billion in Asia, and not here or in Europe?

[12:05:56 PM] RHG: The reason I gave for the success of the US in the 20th century. Big Government spending on new technologies, with private enterprise on the inside of the loop doing the manufacturing. Nobody else seems to have thought of this as the cause for American success, but you can see the relationship: WW I, the technology carried the US until 1929. The wheels fell off, and stayed off for over a decade, until the Government started spending on new manufacturing techniques, new science, etc, in WW II. Then, in the late 50's, when things were slowing down, the Russians launched Sputnik 1. The US had possession of German rocket scientists, as did the Russians, and Sputnik was the trigger to start the US on a space race, and the race to the moon again gave US industry a big tech edge.

Now look at the US Government expenditure. The idea that war brings growth and profitability is being demonstrated to be untrue with the massive amount being spent in Iraq etc and the economic disaster in its trail. Meanwhile, US technology is coming to a close, the baton being passed to China and India etc. You see the Tevatron just closed? The Space Shuttle is only a memory, and the Republicans are still bleating about free enterprise being the creative engine of capitalism.

And meanwhile, the Chinese are spending: the Chinese Government not only conducts research, it owns a big chunk of the companies that develop the products from the new technologies and take them to market.

So where is America's high speed rail technology?

And America's space technology is gone: so many people have been "let go" from the programs that it would no longer be feasible for NASA to coordinate a moon shot. Or even build a new shuttle.

[12:14:40 PM] WR: ok

[12:18:19 PM] RHG: So while the US wallows in its misconceptions of American Exceptionalism and the reasons for America's success, it is in a race to the bottom. And as you have pointed out in the past, the rate of change is exponential. I think we are watching the last gasps of the US as the Government prints vast chunks of money and spends it on exactly the things that do not result in economic growth (bankers, lawyers, and unskilled labor fixing roads and the like).

[12:18:09 PM] WR: right

[12:18:19 PM] RHG: Yes, we need efficient transportation infrastructure. But how about new technology, not just fix the same old same old?

The Chinese have the idea of using high speed transportation. That means the same rail can carry three times the load!

And meanwhile, we are building robots to kill Al Qaeda reactionaries, and Foxconn in China is building a million robots to build Apple products.

So we can really test out theory that war is good for the economy with this one, huh? :D

[12:21:56 PM] WR: Yeah, i guess so. not so sure how well the Chinese economy will be doing after those million robots get going