I wonder to what extent the supra green policies, union obfuscation of key manufacturing industries and mazes of regulation and high taxes have contributed to the sudden decline of western economic strength. The lack of basic industry such as manufacturing and mining and good paying jobs seem endemic to G7 countries. Constantly we were hearing the Mantra from politicians about how it was natural for mature economies to mature into service economies. We were hearing this all through the 1980's. But in fact the most robust economies of the time, Japan and Germany were heavily dominated by manufacturing of high end products, retail goods and machinery. It was a criticism of these service sector catering governments that in fact the service part that they seemed to be talking about was the Civil service. By the 1980's the civil service was 65% of the Canadian economy. Any industrial services that did exist had to depend on experience in the basic industries they are supposed to serve. And by the time these basic industries disappear the experience and attendent economic leverage of the services that support them has to wane as well.
We built a bubble economy based on debt and the pre-eminence of the dollar as a medium of exchange, not production per se. Will this eventually fade? And with the fading of the dollar, will our economy face harsh reality as well? The US and G7 have rael wealth and many technological, educational and infrastructure advantages. It should not fritter these away by basing their policies for maintentance and growth on overly dealistic objectives such as reaching Kyoto ideals short term, preserving vast tract of otherwise productive land from any encroachment, protecting communistic labour sub-heirarchies, and regulating and taxing business to the extreme degree. In order to start a mine in Nevada it takes 4 years to permit. In the light of the maturity of the industry and its relatively benign environmental impact in this region, this has to be judged as ludicrous. With upwards of 60,000 in tent cities in California, depending on 12 dollar an hour jobs, to repress basic industries that could employ many thousands of people with good salaries has to the ultimate ostrich based mentality. We have seen it coming for 30 years, but comfortable civil servants with plush jobs are insulated from the gritty social realities and the necessities that they dictate, so are oblivious to these ominous vectors of decline.
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