[Kooler] Is the US already bankrupt?

[Jaron Omega]

On Tue, 31 Dec 2002, Gabriel Sechan wrote:

> From: Dario Alcocer <alcocer at helixdigital.com>
> 
> This guy has the grasp of economics of a 2 year old.

Economics is one of the most complicated subjects, some areas requiring
the same amount of math as a theoritical physicist.  So, I won't even
pretend I know the first thing past identifying whether or not I have
enough money to purchase some merchandise.  However, I do have some
questions about your post here.

> Televisions-  he seems to correlate the number of companies producing a 
> product to the health.  While this is true to a degree (monopolies are bad, 
> mmkay?), he forgets that the consolidation and exporting of manufacturing 
> caused a drop in prices.  This raised the general standard of living as a 
> whole.  THis is known as a good thing.  He also exagarates- there are more 
> than 1 US company making TVs.  RCA, GE, etc got out of the market because 
> they weren't competitive.  This is a win for consumers.

About the "general standard of living".  I still to this day do not know
precisely what this means, or where they got what little I do know of it.
How is an increase determined in respect to standard of living?  See, I
much prefer to consider the quality of available and affordable merchandise.
When I walk into even a middle class home, I see trash, garbage worthless
products made to look nice.  None of the furniture is solid wood, or if it
is solid made from crap scrap; it's all press board, ply wood with wood grain
stickers or formica covering it.  I don't see where the standard of living
can be higher in respect to merchandise to those of other nations.  My
girl friend is Russian, nothing in their house that looks wooden is fake
wood, nothing looking metal is hollowed aluminum it's all high quality solid
durable products.  Not to mention this past year atleast twice the amount of
cars, of a value exceeding 70k a piece, were sold in Moscow than the rest of
the world (Russia doesn't have a finance system, those cars were paid in
full).  How can my standard of living be higher when the quality of things
I own is far below par.  Especially considering how much I paid for it.

Or, is standard of living based on something else?  Clean running water
perhaps?  Or maybe a health system, obviously not in America.  Perhaps
it's political?  I could care less about half of the constitution, I'll
never get to challange the bulk of it, and local state and city laws
prohibit excercising much of the rest.

I honestly don't understand "standard of living", you probably have guess
so already.  Please, tell me how my standard of living is higher than the
other Chinese kid in Peking when he's sleeping on a solid oak victorian
style bed and I'm on a cot by comparison.

> Service Economy-  if you include design as a service, this is very real.  If 
> we design the products here, where they are manufactured is inconsequential. 
>   The money still flows in.

This, I really don't understand.  To the CEO of a huge corporation where his
merchandise is manufactured may be inconsequential, but for the society his
fat ass is raping they are out of jobs.  Money, as it seems doesn't exactly
flow into the US in respect to the public, but into his individual wallet.

> A nation of clerks-  no we're becoming a nation of ideas.  We're the 
> designers. His problem is that he sees wealth coming only from material 
> goods.  He obviously was never an engineer, he doesn't see that the design 
> of such goods is a far more important job.

No, design is not the most important, the existance is the most important.

> It also pays 3-5 times as much 
> (minimal).  We are exporting the dangerous, low paying, labor intensive 
> jobs.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It's clear you are truely American.  Not a bad thing eh?  Now I wonder why
we have all these stupid liability laws... am I supposed to raise my kid
to be a pansy and at the drop of the dime eager to blame someone else becuase
he got a boo-boo?  It is a bad thing.  It's a terrible thing that an old lady
can win a law suit, much less even start a case, and be granted a million
becuase coffee is hot.  Or, here's a good one the Navy issuing stress cards
in boot camp... broke a sweat doing push-ups?  Dear God that can't be,
flag that stress card and take a rest.  While I agree a helmet is useful
on a half-pipe, I do not see the need freestyling on the street.  But to an
American, so damn dangerous that it's required by law that you wear a helmet
for anything you do; biking, skateboarding, masturbating.


> Balance of trade-  I don't know what the current trade deficit is (is it 
> even a deficit?)  At any rate, it doesn't matter.  We put money out during a 
> deficit, buyign things.  This lowers internal prices, and makes foreign 
> investments in our country more attractive, bringing in money.  It evens out 
> long term.

I can see how this would work.

> If gold truely had an intrinsic stability and the gold standard 
> work, this would have been impossible.

Doesn't England base their money on silver?  I think the pound is worth
more than the dollar at the moment... not sure, too lazy to look it up.

Omega