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0 sats \ 9 replies \ @028559d218 24 Mar \ parent \ on: Replacing Cash With CBDC Would Pose A Grave Threat To Our Rights and Freedoms econ
Lowering import duties. Basically making goods cheaper for americans.
and more broadly, investing in infrastructure and additional education for americans so they can upskill/reskill and get better jobs.
The US has a huge shortage of skilled tradespeople for jobs that pay well and i don't know why trump never talks about it
Lowering import duties would worsen the chronic trade deficit.
Investing in infrastructure and education would have results if the underlying economy had areas where it could viably compete internationally- but does it?
When you have been living on credit/debt for decades and your manufacturing skills capacity and infrastructure has been in relative decline because foreign competitors can produce the same goods at a lower cost and higher efficiency, its a difficult bind to get out of.
Reserve currency status and its ability to live beyond your means has led to chronic and widespread structural decline.
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Lowering import duties would worsen the chronic trade deficit. Investing in infrastructure and education would have results if the underlying economy had areas where it could viably compete internationally - but does it?
Lowering import duties would lower costs for consumers. And in the long term, help US companies to be more competitive. The "trade deficit" isn't actually a problem.
There is no way Mexico is going to 'buy more from the US' than the US 'buys from Mexico' the US is way wealthier so has more to buy...
The problem of the 'trade deficit' is actually a budget deficit... but that is not an economics problem. It is a political problem.
Most federal spending is in Medicare, Social Security, and Defense... but if you're a politician good luck cutting spending in those areas.
As far as infrastructure and education goes... there is a huge shortage of skilled tradespeople. Electricians, welders, master plumbers... there aren't enough in the US so that's what people do to get better jobs... and the government should help them. "The debt" doesn't matter at this point. Either the US gets more competitive... or it won't matter in the long run anyway.
The big threat the US faces isn't necessarily excessive borrowing (although that is an issue) it's lack of global competitiveness.
And the solution if there is one is investments in education, infrastructure, and new technologies.
If that doesn't get sorted out, the debt will never get repaid and the US is cooked regardless.
If it does get sorted out... (and the US becomes more competitive again) the debt is still significant but it will be OK eventually. People will still buy US debt even if it looks like a "bad idea".
A more competitive US and people will be eager to buy it for what it's worth.
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Yes the US still has advantage in some areas and if it can rebuild expand competitiveness that could reverse the decline.
But its a difficult task when from the issuance of debt/capital down through the multiple branches of regulation, planning, investment, education, infrastructure and governance there has been corruption and rentseeking by private capital interests who act in their own interests and have come to dictate to government/s what suits them rather than the government setting the agenda.
Western governments come and go, sponsored by bankers and corporate lobbyists, and when they have allowed and enabled structural reforms that do not enhance the development and overall wealth of the nation but rather enable profiteering and rentseeking for a few corporate interests, there are no real consequences for the politicians who did this.
In China in contrast, if the CCP does not deliver constant improvement on the whole it knows it risks a very brutal removal from power.
Ironically the Chinese autocracy is in practice, arguably, potentially more accountable than western corporate sponsored and directed 'democracies' have become.
The problem is in the apex of the nation state- the government, that has been captured by private interests and no longer serves the common good...and the body of the western democratic nation state- the citizens who have grown complacent and apathetic and allowed this to continue.
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The problem is in the apex of the nation state- the government, that has been captured by private interests and no longer serves the common good...and the body of the western democratic nation state- the citizens who have grown complacent and apathetic and allowed this to continue.
This part I agree with. People have grown lazy. None of these issues are that complex...
The budget deficit the US has, living beyond its means, isn't rocket science but the citizens don't really want the spending sorted out.
Like I said social security, medicare, and defense are most US spending but the voters don't actually want that stuff cut.
I agree with you on the 'corporate interests and lobbyists' stuff. There's definitely too much of that. However I don't think it's a conspiracy. I want to look at it simply.
Having said that, keeping money long term in the fiat of an indebted nation to me just seems crazier and crazier. Doesn't matter which one it is, all of it is pretty much a bad idea.
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The relative wealth and advantage of western nations has created a sense of entitlement to rights and benefits that people in the third world and developing nations do not have.
The creep of corporate lobbyist influence may not be an organised conspiracy but has evolved as a successful mechanism for those with wealth and power to sway government regulations, strategy and expenditure their way while citizens have failed to exercise their will to stamp it out and insist on government that serves the majority.
Perhaps the most damaging example is the success of commercial banks in the west to gain complete freedom over the purpose to which they issue fiat debt finance- since the 1980s it no longer must be toward productive purposes- this has led to the speculation in non productive assets and the neglect of investment in productive assets.
Allowing commercial banks fiat debt issuance for speculation in non productive assets is a blatant misuse of the fiat debt capital issuance mechanism at the core of fiat capitalism and corrodes it from the core.
It is the classic rise and fall dynamics which inevitably afflict every empire- as it gains dominance wealth and privilege it becomes complacent and complacency allows corruption to develop, and before you know it, another more hungry and ambitious contender has risen to challenge the advantage and privilege that was taken for granted by the current hegemony.
Often by the time that is recognised, it is too late.
Holding Bitcoin does at least protect your capital from the parasitic debasement that is now programmed into the wests fiat monetary system.
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"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."
Alexander Fraser Tytler
i have an article I recommend, really
i'm reading it now