Back in 1980 we were competing with the Europeans and Japan but China and India weren't doing much of anything.
How is that relevant to my point. Greater international trade increases economic well being, and even if it didn't the actual measures of the recession are not significantly worse now than in the early 80s.
Today, it's US that's getting "blown away".
The US still produces a lot more than any other nation, both in broad terms, or only counting manufactured goods. We manufacture more than any other two nations combined (or at least we did before the recession, at least still more than any one nation now).
...According to the Federal Reserve data, the U.S. produced almost $3 trillion of industrial output in 2008, measured in 2000 dollars (or about $3.7 trillion in 2008 dollars). In other words, if the U.S. manufacturing sector had been counted as a separate country, it would have been tied with Germany as the world's fourth largest economy, behind the U.S. (non-manufacturing), Japan, and China, and ahead of the entire economies of France, U.K., Italy and Russia (data here).
mjperry.blogspot.com
We also are one of the world's top exporters, exporting close to what Germany or China does, and close to twice what Japan does. |
