The United States is in trouble, and the promised “economic recovery” is not possible in the present environment.
Prosperity depends on production, and we do not produce. The newly announced 9.8% unemployment is tragic, but including the long-term jobless and severely underemployed, that rate is 17%. It is not just about jobs, either, because even a hiring boom would not lead to renewed production. We no longer manufacture things in America, and every first semester student knows that a nation’s wealth is determined by its ability to produce goods.
For any form of sustained recovery, America must restore our capacity to produce — manufacturing, mining, drilling, converting, assembly and distribution. Our desperate economy currently rests on consuming, and that cannot last once the wells run dry.
Manufacturing jobs are the hardest hit. Once, America hired more than 17 million workers to build cars, refine steel, produce electronics and make stuff. Now that number has dwindled to 11 million, and the products are smaller, cheaper, secondary, and less competitive.
To add to the problem, we have a President and Congress that enjoy spending all that our workers produce. They offer solutions like Cap and Trade, public option health care, and restrictive policies that prevent us from competing in world markets. This has been increasingly true through our three previous presidential administrations. Now we have reached a critical period where something must happen immediately or the most dire consequences will follow.
We need a government that allows us more to work with, frees the private sector for creation and development, and stops taking everything we have.
Posted by ddelany 
