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An American fantasy
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
As the generation born after
World War II emerged to take
power, an American fantasy took
power with them. A generation
that grew up without depression
or global war continues to
expect never-ending prosperity
and world peace. The hard facts
of reality will not be faced.
Therefore, reality has
increasingly given way to
various fictions – about
Russia, China, the economy,
education and public morality.
In his 1998 book, "The Great
Betrayal," Patrick Buchanan
tells us of an America in which
working men and woman are
sinking into poverty. The
United States is being drained,
de-industrialized and silently
looted. "After fifteen months
of traveling from Alaska to
Florida," wrote Buchanan, "I
came home convinced that we are
losing the country we grew up
in."
No doubt you have heard the
unemployment statistics. Times
are good, right? But Buchanan
paints a different picture.
Forget what you have heard
about America's booming
economy. "In the first six
years of the 1990s," Buchanan
explained, "real earnings of
full-time U.S. workers fell .9
percent but rose 10 percent in
Germany."
Here's another mind-blowing
statistic. "The wages of
manufacturing workers," claims
Buchanan, "once three and four
times those in Europe and
Japan, are now below Japan's
and are only 60% of Germany's."
From 1900 to 1970 we ran a
trade surplus every year. But
for the last 27 years we have
had a trade deficit every year.
Consider, as well, what
happened to our manufacturing
base. In 1962 manufacturing
accounted for 29 percent of our
GNP. Today it accounts for less
than 17 percent. Buchanan
points out, "Americans no
longer make their own cameras,
shoes, radios, TVs, toys. A
fifth of our steel, a third of
our autos, half our machine
tools, and two-thirds of our
textiles and clothes are made
abroad."
Buchanan calls this "the
decline and fall of middle
America."
Supposedly the U.S. economy has
been steadily expanding for
many years. With the exception
of a mild recession in 1992, we
have supposedly benefitted from
18 years of economic expansion.
But consider recent statistics
regarding the U.S.
manufacturing sector. Last
Tuesday an AP headline stated,
"Manufacturing Activity Plunges
for Ninth Month in a Row." The
story described America's
industrial sector as
"battered." Production in
America's factories, mines and
utilities is down.
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has
unsuccessfully responded to
this slowdown by lowering
interest rates six times in
seven months. Last Wednesday,
testifying before the House
Financial Services Committee,
Greenspan commented, "The
sub-par economic performance
... is not yet over, and we are
not free of the risk that
economic weakness will be
greater than currently
anticipated. ..."
It is believed that Greenspan
will cut interest rates once
more in order to avoid the pain
of recession. By expanding
credit, Greenspan is allowing
consumers to borrow more money
to buy goods and pump up the
manufacturing sector. Americans
are being tempted to get deeper
and deeper into debt.
The deferment of pain is basic
to the new American ethic. We
refuse to face up to the
realities of the world. Going
deeper into debt to stave off
recession is like eating
chocolate bars to lose weight.
Yet this is our choice. Nobody
is complaining. Everyone wants
the party to continue. Few are
thinking ahead to the
consequences.
This is the same pattern of
behavior shown in our relations
with Russia and China. It is a
pattern of behavior that takes
the following approach: Better
to turn a blind eye to emerging
war preparations and preserve
the peace of the moment; or
rather, the illusion of peace,
the fantasy of peace which
soothes our increasingly weak
national character. Add to that
the fantasy of never-ending
prosperity and you complete the
picture. The United States has
entered a kind of extended
childhood in which fantasies
and wishes are preserved and
extended in the face of hard
fact.
Is the economy headed for
trouble?
Consider what President Bush's
very own economic adviser,
Larry Lindsey, once said about
our country's account deficit.
"We have had 20 years of
expansion – 18 actually, going
on 19," said Lindsey, "and it
has been an extraordinary
period. But that does not mean
that everything is A-okay."
Lindsey noted three imbalances
in the economy that really
amount to one imbalance: "Last
year the private sector spent
$700 billion more than it
earned after taxes. Now that is
7 percent of GDP. We have never
been there before."
We are overextended, folks.
According to Lindsey, "The
private sector is running a
record deficit. We are in
uncharted territory. We don't
know how this is going to work
out."
If Joe and Jane America spend
more than they make, the
outcome is obvious. We will
sink into debt. If the behavior
continues and is not reformed,
the debt will grow. It will
become heavy. Finally, the
consumption of Joe and Jane
America will be curtailed. It
will decline. And that will
impact business employment,
investment and manufacturing.
And that is precisely what we
are seeing.
Cutting interest rates, on
Greenspan's part, does not
correct the error of deficit
spending. It extends the error.
It extends the fantasy
existence of a generation that
never saw the Great Depression
or the Second World War.
Brace yourselves for a
collision with reality. |
