I have to agree with esmith. Things are not good right now, and still trending down, but not to worldwide implosion.
The USA still has a few advantages in the world.
1) massive natural resources. ie farmland. We pay people NOT to grow stuff so we dont kill markets. If prices and demand gets too high, those incentives wont be used and well just produce more. We have Oil, gold, copper, natural gas, coal, steel, all in very large quantities, we have again just limited our access to them. Well, we can unlimit it if we need to.
2) A culture that assimilates. The USA is able to assimilate people better than any other on Earth. We are able to take the best of cultures and use it. Look at Japan, the latest eastern “wonder child”. They are fading fast becase they have negative population and no assimilation. That does not bode well for their futures. China’s 1 child policy guarentees they will go through a similar event in the not to distant future.
3) A political system that is flexable. People here generally know that the political system is open, fair, and amendable if needed. We trust that when the vote totals are in, they are real. Look at Zimbabwe for why this is important.
4) A financial system that allows for failure. Companies go bankrupt, trends disappear, people get sick or just unlucky. S^%& happens, and our system handles it. The last financial panic was located in the exact countries that are now going gang busters. They have not been tried or tested, and can fail again.
5) A financial system that everyone else leaches off of. Since we tend to compare ourselves to everyone else instead of look at % of the whole it seems everything is falling apart at the seems. Cept, China is going through inflation far worse than ours, to keep supporting their export laden industries. That can only go on for so long. Eventually they will have to allow for their currency to rise, and when it does the breakneck speeds they are growing will slow dramatically. Coupled with higher energy costs, it may well be that some significant industrial production will come back the USA as it is just cheaper to do it that way. I have alreaday seen news reports about furnature construction moving back to North Carolina.
6) Our exports are food, technology, entertainment, and aerospace. If we ever get in trouble, they cant eat or replace their aircraft/high tech. We cant shop at target anymore or drive BMW’s. Who do you think cries uncle first in that one? (Oil is a problem, a big one. But the high prices we now face will help correct that)
7) We reward creativity better than anyone. The USA is still one of the best places to start a buisness in the world. We are responsible for a huge amount of the worlds R&D. We have capital markets and the know-how to make new discoveries profitable.
8) A reputation that cant be beat. If you can do buisness here, you can do buisness anywhere. I am not talking about Walmart unable to convince Koreans or Germans to shop there. I mean that when we build something people respect it. The Chinese have earned a reputation for being Cheap, but low quality. A family members company was gonna buy a chinese company to make a component in their product, and the “independent” chinese labs said it passed every test with flying colors. It failed every test in the American labs, and needless to say, they didnt buy. That is remembered in the buisness world.
9) The best universities in the world. We still have them and they still are. We need to worry about availablity due to high costs. We need to worry about keeping true talent here. But they are still the gold standard in higher education and that isnt changing anytime soon.
10) The worlds most powerful military. Many of those here may not like this one, but it is true. We have all these things, and we can protect them. That is a major advantage because everyone knows, if trading and deplomacy dont work, we can always take what we want, even if it isnt a good thing to do.
I am not saying there are no problems. I am not saying that the future is without worry. I am saying that we are not gonna be Italy anytime soon.
