Quote:
Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
I guess the hundreds of thousands of homes, thousands of department stores and the Interstate Highway System building don't count.  |
Interstate Highway system was built after 1952 and mostly ended by the 1980s. Yes we do build some things since the housing stock must grow with population. However many are not addressing a shortage of affordable housing (some claim a percentage increase in homeless) because house construction is maintained in a McMansion sector of the economy. Affordable housing has not kept up.
In a boom created by money games (early 2000), there was a masssive construction in commercial properties. That misguided effort means vacancy rates on commerical property (especially malls) has increased significantly. In what is suppose to be a growing economy, commercial vacancy rates are increasing.
Most all work is directed at economic maintenance (ie roads, groceries) and replacement. Of all that work, 2% might do actual growth - if economic numbers are actually measuring tangible accomplishments. A healthy economy does better than 2%. 2% is paltry.
In Clinton's time, growth increased to eventually exceed 4%. George Jr's period saw less growth. And most of that was invented in finance games. Eventually resulting in negative growth.
Obama's positive grow rates finally got the economy back around 2011 to where is was in 2001. Unfortunately even with a healthy 4% growth, where are those interstate highway projects, new bridges and tunnels, high speed rail, new airports, or even increasing exports? It pays for wars that accomplish nothing but promote wacko extremists (ie Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc).
This past year, American exports have even decreased by 10%. Who is doing an increasing amount of GDP in America? Foreign manufacturers. We are building less. Many American industries are surrendering to or are being purchased by foreign manufacturers - who do what America once dominated: innovation. Even the world's best (innovative) light bulbs are predominately designed and manufactured overseas.
Developed just in one place were lasers, fiber optics, computer voice and digital music, satellite communication, digital information theory, computer software innovations, PCM, cell phones, transistors, radio astronomy, statistical process control, photoelectric cells, the big bang, cryptography (based in information theory), MOSFET transistor (currently the world standard), OFDM (now an international standard in and makes possible today's mobile phones and TVs), charge coupled devices (that makes all current cameras possible), the ESS phone system, fiber optic ocean cables, and TDMA / CDMA communications. All but the last occurred before 1970.
Bell Labs were only one of so many venues where innovation at these levels were routine. All those things are now standard technologies throughout the world. Where are so many innovations since then? Without the greater California region, America would be a second class nation. We no longer see so many innovations - the only thing that creates growth. Even the Bell Labs are no longer owned by Americans. Finland now owns it.
We once did all that, built homes, built an interstate highway system, built bridges and tunnels, and built all commercial properties we needed back then. What remains from that list? Homes. We even have too many commercial properties and no longer built highways, railroads, or bridges to even meet current demands.
What are future world leaders working on? Quantum computing, quantum physics and mechanics, solar and wind based energy innovations, terahertz based devices, genetically manufactured crops and drugs, artificial intelligence, robotics (replacing humans with machines), and energy consuming devices that consume massively less energy. America, that was once a leader in every one is only a leader in a few. Even superior automotive, wind and solar energy, GM technology, and quantum physics has left America. America has not been able to put a man in space for almost 20 years (now that George Jr administration destroyed that American technology by pushing a bogus Constellation, Ares, and Orion). Superior ships are built in S Korea, Japan, Norway, and other nations. American designers of skyscrapers do most work overseas. Even Intel, for the first time ever, is now run by a bean counter (the CFO) who knows nothing about microprocessors. Another precursor to something bad coming.
So what are people working on? America has more military than the next largest six nations combined. And what do wacko extremists want? More military. IOW more wars and more waste. Talent and abilities exist. But are wasted (misdirected) on unproductive activities - ie Mission Accomplished war, bogus man space projects, and protecting obsolete technologies such as GM cars, stifled innovation in the drug industry, and corporate downsizing to enrich dying companies (ie General Electric, Sears, white appliance industry, and now I fear Boeing).
That explains so much infrastructure that was not even maintained - so as to claim growth on spread sheets.
In Philadelphia, maintenance on Veteran's Stadium was ignored. 30 years later, it was so bad that it had to be ripped down and replaced. So that is growth only because money was saved and costs controlled on the existing structure? That is growth only when spread sheets play fast and loose using money games - ie no maintenance.