America is a prosperous country.

[girl gone mad]

Despite the financial crisis engineered by our elites, we have never been more productive, more rich in resources or more equipped to meet all of our own needs than we are right now.

Forcing the productive classes to "sacrifice" as a means of enabling the speculator class to further enrich itself through artificial scarcity is a crime, and nothing more.

[RKP5637]

1. Yes, a prosperous country in certain circles, the rest, not so much. n/t

[pampango]

2. Never has a country produced so much wealth then given it to so few. Sad. n/t

[indurancevile]

3. a crime is what it is.

[hifiguy]

4. The money is there

and so is the talent and work ethic. The problem is simple - the entire system has been rigged for the last thirty years to enrich only the parasite class.

[Yavin4]

5. In Fact, The Entire World's Economy Is Slanted to Benefit A Tiny At The Expense of the Many

That's the real reason why the economy is in the tank.

[CleanGreenFuture]

6. "...more rich in resources or more equipped to meet all of our own needs..."

than we are right now".

Please expound on this in as much detail as you can to back up this statement. Thanks.

[girl gone mad]

12. We have 16% real unemployment..

and massive underutilized productive capacity.

We have record numbers of vacant housing units. Our oil consumption has been declining. We produce over 8000 calories of food per person per day. There is no scarcity crisis, except where money is concerned.

[CleanGreenFuture]

15. Our oil consumption has been declining because oil production has been

declining since 2004. And we get most of what we use from other countries. So, oil should not even be mentioned in your response.

Our productive capacity has been shifted to lower wage locales, like China.

And though our food production has historically been sufficient, new data may prove that to be false today. Weather, higher input costs, and farm labor being chased back to their countries of origin by the 'thugs have surely contributed to a reduction in that calorie per day figure.

[girl gone mad]

17. Productive capacity means maximum potential output.

We've shifted production of many of our goods to lower wage economies while our own capacity remains largely in place. We still have the ability and the means to create the things we need and want. Increasing the output of foreign workers has only freed up more capacity here.

Our oil consumption is down for several reasons, but diminished domestic production is not one of them.

As to food production, you are only citing potential disruptions that have no bearing on our current reality. There is no good reason to require people to make financial sacrifices right now based on the idea that some day down the line food availability could fall dramatically. We should be addressing the real problems that exist right now, not basing our economic policy on fictionalized scenarios which may or may not play out at some point in the future.

[CleanGreenFuture]

19. Why is diminished domestic production not one of the reasons? We only produce

half of what we did in 1970, the year U.S. production peaked. And it has been in decline ever since.

So has global oil production been declining since 2004, as seen in the graph below.



I stand by my earlier comments regarding production (most production equipment is now in China) and food production, which has suffered many problems lately, like flooding and drought.

[Speck Tater]

7. America is a hollow, bankrupt shell of its former self.

We are more productive because the few people who still have jobs are being pushed harder and harder to make up for the people who have been let go.

We have no manufacturing base any more.

We can't come close to meeting our own energy needs, let alone our raw materials needs.

Everything we buy is made in China because we can't afford the little bit of stuff that's made here any more. The whole U.S. economy is running on fumes, and it's got three or four more blocks to coast downhill until it sputters to a permanent stop.

I'm afraid people who think the U.S. is still an economic powerhouse are in denial, big time. The only economy left in the U.S. is the false economy of shuffling paper around for a fee. That, and serving up burgers to the paper shufflers. Nothing, I repeat NOTHING of actual worth is being produced by the U.S. economy. It's all smoke and mirrors and the next good breeze will blow the smoke away.

[Mimosa]

8. You are Soooooo wrong. We are still #1 in...

Heavy arms manufacturing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry

Therefore we need WARS to continue. Or else we REALLY crash! :(

[Speck Tater]

9. O.K. You're right about that. :) nt

[Kaleko]

11. + 1

[Agony]

10. Affirmative. It really is that simple.

"enabling the speculator class to further enrich itself through artificial scarcity is a crime, and nothing more."

I probably would have said "and nothing LESS" , likely because I am one of those "glass half full" progressivish types we have been hearing about.


Cheers,
Agony

[Gregorian]

13. And we can manufacture.

Swiss dental implants are made here. We have highly sophisticated factories. We gave away much of our productive base. However, it only takes a short period of time to train people to do this work.

It can be turned around. In more than one way.

It's also very easy to be pessimistic about what is happening. And rightfully so. Thanks to DU, I now see this for what it is. A culture war. We let this happen in the name of profit.

[damntexdem]

14. But that can change.

And the Repukes are well on the way to making that change.

[ThomWV]

16. If there is one lesson to have been learned from inner city and rural drug dealers

Here is one thing proven time and time again by inner city and rural drug dealers and maniacal despots. Enormous amounts of money can be extracted from very poor areas if they can be controlled. Just imagine how much more can actually be milked out of all of us.

[FogerRox]

18. "more rich in resources ", is that snark?

You are aware that we ran out of the iron ore Hematite in the mid 1970's?


Same oil and copper.