Source Thread:
'Rise and Fall of
Superpower'
The current era that we are living are presenting very challenging
environment not only to the individuals but also to the very
societies due to the global resource constraint and
technology bottle neck.
In the past, there were enough technologies breakthrough and
innovations that allowed the the country with the most advanced
scientific power to become superpower in terms of economy and
influence. Example is America and Japan, where their innovations
allowed them to develop leading technology and products that
dominated the world economy. When technology innovations are at
that plenty, the direction of the future development is clear and
obvious for the world leaders. USA and Japan would always
manufacture the most leading products, while the less developed
cheaper countries would manufacture more mainstream products at a
cheap lower cost.
What happened later is that there is a slow down of technology
innovations. there is less and less new leading products coming to
the market, USA and Japan start running out of leading products to
manufacture and find themselves hard to compete against less
developed countries to manufacture more mainstream products.
Slowly USA and Japan find themselves losing manufacturing
power to less developed countries, at first to South American and
Asia. So USA have no choice but slowly turned its
attention to service sector and domestic demand, such as finance,
multimedia such as films, books and others.
Initially the South America and Asia are booming, but India and
China suddenly become the big players as they start opening their
market and opening themselves to the world. Due to their huge
population size and low wage cost, they become the biggest
mainstream products manufacturing with the potential to become some
of the largest domestic market globally. Suddenly, India becomes
the world largest IT outsourcing venue and China becomes the
largest mainstream product manufacturing venue.
Therefore, as the economies of USA and Japan become
stagnant, India and China are growing at a staggering
pace. As USA continues to focus on its domestic market, India and
China is supplying their cheap services and products to USA and the
rest of the world. Soon USA finds that it needs to borrow money to
sustain the current lifestyle of living. Just like a fisherman
borrowing money from the moneylender. The fisherman keeps on
borrowing money from the moneylender and the moneylender dare not
refuse as it depended on the fisherman for enough fishes for his
diet. If one day the moneylender able to catch enough fish on his
own, he will refuse to lend money to the fisherman and fisherman
will become broke.
[bold font and spelling edits added]
Not to sure if the fisherman scenario is that apt an example bc
the US in reality, now doesn't borrow, it simply
PRINT$$$$; anyhow, I think that recent US
Presidents in recent times have breed an increasingly STUPID
population based upon their 'job printing' policies to that lull
lay electorate from genuine concern.
From what I do hear, many American citizens are still stuck in
their pre-Lehman (2007-8) profligacy, (then and still) funded by
the USA housing boom funded perpetuated by deception, aka "fraudulent underwriting practices".
Currently, their chieftain, Mr Ben Bernanke, Chairman of US FED,
seems to be of the opinion that if by hook or crook, the share
markets can be propped up by quantitative easing (aka printing
$$$), then the economy can glow again, but all this silliness is no
contest for the stable Asian concept of 'love' whereby individuals
are taught to place others' (family/ country) first.
My current view is that rather than sticking to the purity of its
own religion (Christianity (mainly protestant AFAIK))- as exemplified by
mutual caring and love between men as the
alter of God bestows, American citizens have instead
increasingly believed in the deceptive statistics spewed by
economist, in conspiracy with 2 querulous political parties-
democrats and republicans, purporting on each side- skewed, half
baked economic theories.
Whilst money printing aka "quantitative easing (QE)" in the short term might
indeed boost the economy (raise GDP), this effect is temporary
(think drug doping in cycling sport/ Lance Armstrong),
unfortunately, the cost of such myopic endeavor is oft devastating.
For the profit of aggrandizing Obama's joblessness/ GDP statistics/
Presidency short term, here's what QE will do to human (American)
society:
- Widen rich poor divide because only equity
(bonds, stocks etc) holders and home owners profit from the
FED's US$1trillion p.a. QE plan (US$85billion/
month = US$1020 Billion p.a.). The $ sloshing around the economy
will immediately raise stock prices and housing prices through
cheap mortgage rates but the consequences of such are
manifold:
- More money around makes people more stressed and
the economy more complicated- essential public services are
strained and eventually will costs more to run (healthcare, police,
fire service)- eventually dragging down the economy if
mismanaged.
- People become more unreasonable and demanding
because there is excessive dependence upon government powers to
provide jobs/ sustain the economy since inflation is often a
delayed side effect of loose monetary policy: this disquiet will be
politically challenging to control down the road for politicians of
today's standards (e.g. Bush, Obama).
- Politicians who depend upon loose monetary policies
(borrowing against future generations) rather than
"leading by example" set the example for dishonesty amongst the
citizens of the country. 'Like father like son', bad leaders beget bad followers, the Americans
of tomorrow will not be more virtuous then their leaders today who
rather borrow money against the credit of their unborn children
than lead society by moral example.
- needless to say, I do indeed believe that the US economy is
heading in the wrong direction as it seems a growing economy devoid
of moral foundation. Obama's theory seems to be
that by increasing the food pile upon the table of the rich, more
food will fall off the table as scraps for the poor- an extremely
inefficient method of alleviating poverty in the world today.
Still, little does Obama realize that over eating by the rich will
result in indigestion, and over a longer term, a fatal coronary.
The scraps the poor get from the floor are also stale and the
indignity of receiving half eaten food isn't significantly
uplifting. Worse, all the food wasted in this process only serves
to pollute the environment, making it less hospitable for all (read
global warming, Fukushima nuclear disaster*, environmental
pollution). Ultimately, an economy that encourages 'creative
accounting' and other moral
hazards and plagued by an ever increasing class divide cannot
be described as a resilient society and where push comes to shove,
civil discord/ war will again take hold and reduce all liberties to
that of a police state. One full circle, the rise and the fall of
the Unites States of America.
In short, the American economy, originally built more like a house
upon a rock, is now built like one upon shaky soil; the moral compass of
America is broken.
Where love and liberty fail, corruption and authoritarianism take
hold.
A political system not driven by moral interest (love) but by the unilateral and
irresponsible desire for personal wealth(at all costs)- is doomed
to fail.
Pre-Lehman was a mirage, post Lehman is truth.
Sans moral purpose and direction, the citizens of this world have
little, if any, to look forward to.
1 John 4:8; New International Version
(NIV)
God’s Love and
Ours
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is
love.
Matthew 7:15-20, New International Version
(NIV)
True and False
Prophets:
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit
you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or
figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit,
but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad
fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that
does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20
Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Matthew 7:24-27; New International Version (NIV)
The Wise and
Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them
into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and
beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its
foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of
mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who
built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a
great crash.”
*PS: 'Fukushima nuclear disaster' is used as an
example of a man made disaster: wherein it was declared by the
investigation commission that: "the Japanese Nuclear Industrial and
Safety Agency had been promoting nuclear energy without
being open about the inherent risks.
It said that a culture of complacency about nuclear safety
and poor crisis management had led to the nuclear
disaster." [Japan nuclear plants 'still not safe', (aljazeera,
23July2012)]
Caption: Inflation is an extinct concept in textbooks written
by Chairman of Fed, Mr Ben Bernanke.[pict source: Dear Ben, Please Print Us More Money]
Caption: Currency currency everywhere, yet not a bit to spend
[Source: Hyperinflation In Zimbabwe]
Tags: America, economy, morality, quantitative easing, development,
GDP, inflation, poverty, world, stability, hyperinflation, Ben,
Bernanke, QE, Love, budget, fiscal, economics, Christian,