My reflection on my past posts has led me to wonder if all I do is complain or only see the negative side of things. Identification of the problem is only one part of the entire whole. I try very hard to avoid the slippery slope of negative thinking. So I figure I try to blog about what I feel would be my direction to improve the economy if I had control to do so. Answers, not more questions!!! To begin, the first step to fixing something is providing a path and to avoid the pitfall of listing a bunch of plans which create multiple roads that will undoubtedly leads to nowhere or maybe by luck lead to somewhere that negate other plans. So short and long term plan require a strategy. Unfortunately many people in government seek the short term glory and even more people seek to recklessly start initiatives without looking at the consequences.
So first thing I would suggest and Mr. O to my surprise, started to push forward is the investment in infrastructure. In the US, everything is much older. If you are to compare US with the number 2 and number 3 economies of the world, we are overdue for an overhaul on how we transport, consume, and dispose things around us. Just a simple cause and effect equation. The people who develop the infrastructure will be relatively large in number. They create tangible product that help create the support structure to create other type of business. If efficiency is the requirement of business, then the well run infrastructure to support those requirements is that foundation. Homes can be farther from place of work. Business can reach other easier. Family can explore beyond their backyard. The benefit of that investment produces output that multiplies as well as spread across industries to income classes. There are more benefits not mentioned, but this is the simple example.
Give people a break. I believe having low taxes will stimulate the economy, not because it is the only magical bullet, but lower taxes work together with other initiative to collectively combat the local investment woes and the bleeding of talented resources out of US. If US is to take a stance on continue high taxes, then other items such as medical service and transportation cost, and among other things has to be cheaper. Stop the squeeze. Looking at the top countries in the world today they fall into one of the two categories. In HK, low taxes and along with other government bills make a place where international business want to be there and where local business have such a huge incentive to start their own business. In reverse Norway or even Singapore or even Canada has relatively high taxes, but they support their citizen's life style in medical and world wide tax breaks. I did not list everything. But those mention make the citizen of those countries want to eventually go back if they are somewhere else or even the existing citizen to stay where they are. Most expat Canadian do not have to pay worldwide tax on their earning. Almost all Canadian I encounter says they will go back home to retire as well as they started to build their next egg back home along with home and other retirement plans. Where for American, more and more are leaving the US, considering to renounce their citizenship. I don't think it is the lack of love for the US, but more how the US choke the American spirit out of them. Some of the young generation are looking to leave US because one of course jobs, which is a circular event of things mentioned here, but more so they are jumping out of US because even the most loyal dogs will leave its owner if he gets whacked by the newspaper everyday.
Now the focus on science, arts, and mathematics. US right now can not compete in the global economy. Not because we have dumb people, but because we have excessive greedy people and government who will not provide a path to divert from the herd thinking everything relates to finance or law. Also most of our government comes from similar world of discipline when they attend their universities and master programs. Their background mirrors each other. Last time I check that was suppose to be a bad thing. The three areas mentioned need to be more encourage by US, not just by the government, but by its citizens. Start encourage the kids to go into arts if they want to. Allow them to aspire to be astronauts. The bottom line is that the global economy requires less need for minds that think like entitle chiefs, but more like Indians that evolve into good chiefs. The social benefit of having more people in art or mathematics will multiply. They provide the balance of the mind in ways we design the architecture, they industry that bloom from area to area, and the ability to challenge the status quot on what is.
Bottom line, a re balancing of wealth and power is happening for some time now. Similar to the re balance of your portfolio, it seems like in one part of the world things are in chaos, while another part is enjoying prosperity. When I travel, I often compare how that country compares to the US. These days I think we as US citizens needs to see things from a whole picture perspective versus how we are the big fish in the pond. Other countries are exceeding us, we need to step aware from the imperialistic thinking, like the Romans, and find a way to stop the collapse of the empire.
I still think US is the best country in the world, yet my feeling is that it is like a sick person that I just want to avoid right now. But I hope for it get better because I think US is still fundamentally stronger than most other countries. Time is short. Investment I mentioned are long duration. I hope US like the champ that is is, to come back in the 11th round with a surprising TKO to win it all. To allow its citizen to cheer again, to be proud where you are a citizen, and to be an example to the world of raising the social conscious to another level not understood yet by the rest of the world.
