It's not up for debate
that our country is losing ground on the world stage — at least as far as
economic and military power are concerned. But what is debatable is how we
should react.
Aaron Clarey, author
of the popular ebook "Enjoy the Decline," believes America's fiscal
house has been out of order far too long to simply spruce it up again.
America's unemployment
rate hovers at exactly four percent, though far more are underemployed
with little hope in sight. Dependence on public assistance is skyrocketing, and
race relations have been set back several years since Trayvon Martin's fatal
shooting.
All of this is just
the tip of a colossal iceberg, but the point makes itself.
Clarey, a popular economist who is also a fossil-hunter and dancer, thinks the fundamentals of American life are well out of step with financial realities. People wish to have a spouse, comfortable house in the suburbs, nice cars, and, of course, children. While this noble aspiration has become a staple of U.S. culture, if it cannot be financed, then it is nothing more than a fantasy to pass the time.
The reality which one
will wake up to hardly resembles what most would describe as the American
Dream. Rather, it is a scenario in which college students saddled with
six-figure debt work jobs designed for high-schoolers. It is a scenario in
which multinational banks receive excessive government bailouts after they
wrecked the housing market with predatory loan schemes.
It is a scenario in
which the government itself encourages more responsible banks and mortgage
firms to ease their lending policies so people who can't afford expensive
things will be able to.
Of course, these folks
won't be able to keep their possessions-on-credit for long. After the
inevitable economic meltdown, debt collectors aren't going to shrug and drive
off into the sunset.
The most startling
revelation here is that people learned nothing from the last recession, which
is supposedly over, though hardworking Americans haven't seemed to notice.
Already, the public sector is ready to repeat the same steps which brought
about the 2008 financial crisis.
Why? Simple - people
want easy money. They are willing to vote for politicians who will make it
available, and certain businesses who are set to receive sweetheart deals
donate to those same politicians.
Obviously, the more
easy money there is, the less whatever currency it was printed in is worth, and
the closer once-mighty nations inch to armageddon. The facts have not mattered
for quite awhile, though, so this point should summarily fall by the wayside.
Clarey is of the
opinion that productive people should stop trying to turn the ship around, so
to speak, and simply accept America's malaise. He believes that resistance to
an existence where the takers overwhelm the makers is, essentially, pointless.
Considering how
welfare-to-work has been relaxed so the program is barely effective, and how
generational public subsidy recipients can game the system by having more and
more kids, it is difficult to refute him.
Clarey is also
concerned about America's devolving culture, but not from the standpoint of a
Jerry Falwell or Rick Santorum disciple. In a nutshell, Clarey seems to think
that many people have no desire to build the quality of life for themselves
which preceding generations did. This, in turn, causes the lion's share of
modern America's social problems.
Can America feasibly
be brought back to the days of its economic glory; namely the mid-twentieth
century?
This would require the
manufactured goods we buy to be not only assembled, but made here. It would
mean that consumers are no longer able to buy a millionaire's house on a middle
class budget. Essentially, our society's mainstream would have to focus on its
true priorities.
Are contemporary
Americans mature enough to do that? Finding the answer appears none too
difficult. The answer itself, though, could very well be devastating.
Joseph Ford Cotto, 1st Baron Cotto, GCCCR is the editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Review of Books. In the past, he covered current events and style for The Washington Times's Communities section, where he interviewed personalities ranging from Fmr. Ambassador John Bolton to Dionne Warwick. Cotto was also a writer for Blogcritics Magazine and Yahoo's contributor network, among other publications. In 2014, H.M. King Kigeli V of Rwanda bestowed a hereditary knighthood upon him, which was followed by a barony the next year. |
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