Nice article, I would agree that there is no technical reason why the US could not remain the world’s greatest power. Historically India and China have dominated global population and GDP, however the future of a country is determined by the quality and quantity of its R&D, and in that regard the US still leads – and could continue to lead. Also, the land area of the US is slightly greater than China, and almost three times that of India – the US could boost its economy by boosting its population to match China and India.
There is only one thing holding the US back – the political system and resulting crippling economic inefficiencies. At one time, the US government was the envy of countries everywhere, that is no longer the case – the US now has a second rate government. Unfortunately, while I see some movement to reduce the size of government, which should help a little, I see no similar movement to reform/fix it.
A portion of the problem with the ‘reform/fix it’ portion is that the entire ‘Conservative side’ doesn’t have a firm “Rightie Utopia” vision.
That is: “Go back to year X!” isn’t compelling, because there’s always -something- that was fixed since then. “Oh, so you want to re-shackle women!” or whatever.
The Progressive Utopia is easy to visualize from an individual perspective (the part it crashes on it how-in-the-hell-to pay for it).
But the -strict- conservative position will -always- be open to “Hey, that means people aren’t prepared for retirement/elder care/research/arts/whatever.”
IMNSHO, any “people should do this!” position from government should be structures on a “Ok, pay a 5% tax … or put 4% of your tax-free income into a dedicated account for XYZ.”
Go down the list (adjusting the numbers as needed). People are “saving their own money”. Pseudo-voluntarily.
Separate the redistribution.
VDH sounds pissed.
Japan was the #2 economy until recently. There is no reason that we can’t out perform demographic disparities.
He did promise change. He was only vague on what.
Nice article, I would agree that there is no technical reason why the US could not remain the world’s greatest power. Historically India and China have dominated global population and GDP, however the future of a country is determined by the quality and quantity of its R&D, and in that regard the US still leads – and could continue to lead. Also, the land area of the US is slightly greater than China, and almost three times that of India – the US could boost its economy by boosting its population to match China and India.
There is only one thing holding the US back – the political system and resulting crippling economic inefficiencies. At one time, the US government was the envy of countries everywhere, that is no longer the case – the US now has a second rate government. Unfortunately, while I see some movement to reduce the size of government, which should help a little, I see no similar movement to reform/fix it.
A portion of the problem with the ‘reform/fix it’ portion is that the entire ‘Conservative side’ doesn’t have a firm “Rightie Utopia” vision.
That is: “Go back to year X!” isn’t compelling, because there’s always -something- that was fixed since then. “Oh, so you want to re-shackle women!” or whatever.
The Progressive Utopia is easy to visualize from an individual perspective (the part it crashes on it how-in-the-hell-to pay for it).
But the -strict- conservative position will -always- be open to “Hey, that means people aren’t prepared for retirement/elder care/research/arts/whatever.”
IMNSHO, any “people should do this!” position from government should be structures on a “Ok, pay a 5% tax … or put 4% of your tax-free income into a dedicated account for XYZ.”
Go down the list (adjusting the numbers as needed). People are “saving their own money”. Pseudo-voluntarily.
Separate the redistribution.
VDH sounds pissed.
Japan was the #2 economy until recently. There is no reason that we can’t out perform demographic disparities.