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Maybe America Should Declare Bankruptcy
By Ben Davidson, Winsted
Just how can anybody expect us to have a healthy economy when the United States has a trade deficit of over $30 billion per month? For the past twelve years, our negative balance of trade in goods and services has been increasing; the last year in which the downward acceleration was briefly turned around was around 1990-91. The Clinton administration boasted about our smoke and mirrors illusion of good economy with trade deficits of over $32 billion per month. The dogma of "We are a service economy" is stupid, as it attempts to hide the fact that as a nation we produce nothing that any other country wants—with the possible exception of Microsoft products (well, there are a few others, but not nearly enough). Is there any hope in sight?
Are our schools turning out people who will produce goods or services that the rest of the world wants so that we can balance our side of this slide into national bankruptcy, or are we just going to graduate a bunch of internal-overhead, cost-generating people who have no intention of producing a product?
Is there any solution to the stock market crisis? Yes! There are some quick fixes and also some real, long-term solutions. The quick fixes, if used alone, will only serve to bury us deeper in the end. Here is a short list of things that would definitely help:
• Make all top executives in publicly owned corporations legally responsible for all that goes on in the company under their leadership. If there is any cooking of the books, they will lose all and go to the nastiest prison in whichever state they live—not one of the country club prisons for politicians. From there, they will be able to see their mansion-less and BMW-less family on welfare (for a year, before they have to actually work for a living or starve). As I wrote this, I heard about new legislation that may partially address the issue, but I fear the multi-million dollar estates and country club prisons will remain.
• Make local and federal government efficient and fiscally responsible so that business taxes don't drive productive employers elsewhere. (Think about Governor Rowland spending who-knows-how-many thousands of dollars on an ad for seatbelt safety, protecting people from themselves, at a time that the state was crying for new taxes to pay bills.)
• Fix the workman's comp nightmare that in many states drives companies out of state and often out of business.
• Establish a sane product liability environment. What we have is an evil joke that is hurting the country's productivity and turning the legal system into a farce with bad actors.
• Educate people so that they can create, and help create, things of value to the whole world—people who can fix something, solve problems, who don't need to rely on some other person or department every time something new pops up that needs a solution.
Who has more value: the executive who thinks that what is important is who you play golf with (rather than what is actually produced) and the next quarter's earnings so the stocks will be good (as opposed to the company's health ten years from now); the lawyer who can sue him (or you) for some other person's stupidity; the politician/ leader who watches all this go on and says nothing; or the guy who can fix your car so that it keeps running?
The current Wall Street slump can be turned to our advantage if it is used to give a heavenly illumination to exactly what generates a healthy economy. So, add to that list yourself and let's go out and produce!
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