Overall I think this is an excellent article. But it misses a few points, mainly in how much of the United States' resources have been squandered in fighting pointless wars.
In January 2017 Chinese CEO Jack Ma (Alibaba) commented on the United States' gifts to China [0]: "Ma says blaming China for any economic issues in the U.S. is misguided. If America is looking to blame anyone, Ma said, it should blame itself.
"'It’s not that other countries steal jobs from you guys,' Ma said. 'It’s your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way.'”
"He said the U.S. has wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home.
"To be sure, Ma is not the only critic of the costly U.S. policies of waging war against terrorism and other enemies outside the homeland. Still, Ma said this was the reason America’s economic growth had weakened, not China’s supposed theft of jobs."
Another Jack Ma quote from the same time period [1]: "'The past 30 years, companies like IBM, Cisco and Microsoft made tons of money.'
"The question is: where did that money go? It was wasted, Ma explained.
"'In the past 30 years, America has had 13 wars at a cost of $14.2 trillion. That’s where the money went.' He also questioned America’s decision to bankroll Wall Street after the 2008 financial crash, arguing the money would have been better spent in other areas.
"'What if they had spent part of that money on building up their infrastructure, helping white-collar and blue-collar workers? You’re supposed to spend money on your own people.'"
Over the past 50 or 100 years, US Presidents from both parties have tended to be 'useful idiots'. Maybe Kennedy would've figured things out, but a loan gunman took him out before he could stand up to the "military-industrial complex" his predecessor had warned about. The peanut farmer (Carter) wasn't so bad, but he didn't seem to have a big-picture understanding of what he was up against. Reagan might've been effective, then he got shot by a loan gunman early in his first term [2], and was kind of useless after that. GHW Bush was indoctrinated in the dark arts due to his stint at the CIA. Clinton picked up Bush's "globalization" policies (NAFTA, WTO) and ran with them. GW Bush was a dyslexic useful idiot extraordinaire. Obama meant well, but he didn't have any life experience other than community organizing, academics, and politicking.
Humanity's traditional problem was scarcity. The onward march of technology has allowed our species to achieve liftoff. Our problem is now in figuring out how to share the abundance.
That's because in the United States, it's politically easier to spend $1 trillion on war than $1 Billion on infrastructure.
If you propose any program that broadly benefits the American public, concerns arise about "fairness": either that the money is being spent at all, or that it may benefit those undeserving -- either because it will benefit the slovenly or because it will benefit "the rich"[1]
[1] An aside: When talking about social programs in America, "rich" usually starts at 1.5x the median household income. But for taxes, you get long drawn-out arguments as to why a household making $500,000 a year is still middle class because they can't afford to quit their job and retire.
I absolutely agree. The ironic thing is that the US protects the oil going from the ME to China. Trump even said this the other day, maybe things will change?
In January 2017 Chinese CEO Jack Ma (Alibaba) commented on the United States' gifts to China [0]: "Ma says blaming China for any economic issues in the U.S. is misguided. If America is looking to blame anyone, Ma said, it should blame itself.
"'It’s not that other countries steal jobs from you guys,' Ma said. 'It’s your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way.'”
"He said the U.S. has wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home.
"To be sure, Ma is not the only critic of the costly U.S. policies of waging war against terrorism and other enemies outside the homeland. Still, Ma said this was the reason America’s economic growth had weakened, not China’s supposed theft of jobs."
Another Jack Ma quote from the same time period [1]: "'The past 30 years, companies like IBM, Cisco and Microsoft made tons of money.'
"The question is: where did that money go? It was wasted, Ma explained.
"'In the past 30 years, America has had 13 wars at a cost of $14.2 trillion. That’s where the money went.' He also questioned America’s decision to bankroll Wall Street after the 2008 financial crash, arguing the money would have been better spent in other areas.
"'What if they had spent part of that money on building up their infrastructure, helping white-collar and blue-collar workers? You’re supposed to spend money on your own people.'"
[0] Chinese billionaire Jack Ma says the US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure - https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/18/chinese-billionaire-jack-ma-...
[1] Jack Ma: America has wasted its wealth - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/jack-ma-america-has-w...
Over the past 50 or 100 years, US Presidents from both parties have tended to be 'useful idiots'. Maybe Kennedy would've figured things out, but a loan gunman took him out before he could stand up to the "military-industrial complex" his predecessor had warned about. The peanut farmer (Carter) wasn't so bad, but he didn't seem to have a big-picture understanding of what he was up against. Reagan might've been effective, then he got shot by a loan gunman early in his first term [2], and was kind of useless after that. GHW Bush was indoctrinated in the dark arts due to his stint at the CIA. Clinton picked up Bush's "globalization" policies (NAFTA, WTO) and ran with them. GW Bush was a dyslexic useful idiot extraordinaire. Obama meant well, but he didn't have any life experience other than community organizing, academics, and politicking.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ron...
Humanity's traditional problem was scarcity. The onward march of technology has allowed our species to achieve liftoff. Our problem is now in figuring out how to share the abundance.