Paul Craig Roberts,an Assistant Treasury Secretary during the Reagan Administration, and a dyed in the wool Conservative, says that Bush is hastening the day when we will be reduced to Third World Status.The symptoms are ever present and growing in magnitude and virulence.First, our political structure has been debased by phony elections,a corrupt judiciary, a legislature beholden to money,a corporate culture based on risk aversion and government largesse and an executive branch which asserts power that every tin horn dictator that we used to despise drool with envy.
Second,the steady destruction of the manufacturing base in the country is beginning to impact all high end activities in design, research & development and product innovation in many fields.That reduces the opportunities for younger people whose education has been relegated to the back burner in this administration’s mad dash toward wars with just about everyone on earth.The plant closings and layoffs at Ford essentially ensure that the era of upward mobility for the vast majority of our people is over.Bare survival and constant economic fear is going to be the norm.
Thirdly, I believe that the momentum is now shifting toward countries like China and India that have made the education and economic empowerment of their citizens the cornerstones of their economies.It is not a coincidence, I think, that on the day that brought gloomy news about Ford and GM, India was declared the third largest economy on earth behind the U.S. and China.We can expect a massive assault from these two giants in the decades ahead in fields as diverse as conventional manufacturing,medicine, research & development,legal, accounting and banking services,not to mention the ubiquitous call centers.
In the midst of this disintegration, we seem to be lacking anyone on our side who can articulate the problems we are facing, how it is due to ideological blinders and how it can be corrected by thinking of our people and children as assets to be nourished and not as burdens to be endured.It goes to the core of the idea of what a society is for,except to enhance the well being of all individuals.Until that idea takes root, we can expect to see Indians and Chinese dominate the world economic scene.