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Articles of this kind always confuse me. Is the thesis that the US is now an unfavorable destination for money? Putting aside currency and liquidity flows, whic

Articles of this kind always confuse me. Is the thesis that the US is now an unfavorable destination for money? Putting aside currency and liquidity flows, which also confuse me, how about talking about economic activity as a barter system where paper monies are convenient proxies for a million linked IOUs. We all produce a bit of something and trade with it. Now it seems like the author is likening the US to that guy who washed ashore on an island inhabited by two others who have already captured all sources of food, shelter, and entertainment between them and trade in a perfect harmony. The guy who washed ashore, having nothing to offer, will die. However, comparative advantage suggests that even the entity that is not foremost in any activity can eke out a living by creating/manufacturing the stuff that has the lowest opportunity cost of production? Metaphorically speaking, the US will at the very least get to ask the others if they want fries with their fish sandwiches. And that is in the bleak scenario that the US slips overnight into a sweeping mediocrity in all fields. This is hardly true. Despite many legitimate concerns, the US is a definitive leader in pharma, entertainment, technology, and education. "Our college graduates are roughly equivalent in ability to other nations’ high school graduates (story) and a lot of our high school graduates could not compete on the world market for any jobs other than manual labor." This statement is misleading, the US happens to send a very large percentage of its population to high schools and colleges. The median student is, of course, not going to be as smart and able as the median student in India where only a really really tiny percentage of the population has set foot in a classroom. http://blogs.ft.com/crookblog/files/2008/03/kierkegaard.jpg http://blogs.ft.com/crookblog/files/2008/03/kierkegaard.jpg Even the percentage shown in that graph is probably over counting using a very lax definition of college: I say this not as someone speculating on the basis of some internet research, but as a product of the Indian schooling system. And, this might be a stretch, so what if the average graduate is not as smart and intellectually competent in a narrowly defined sense? We became soft and pudgy after physical prowess stopped determining survival probability and reproductive success in industrial and post-industrial eras, so what if we (on average) do become thicker in the post-information era where we have cognitive aids for almost all functions?

michaelneale 19y ago
I think the college years in the US are partly similar to the senior years of what other countries may call senior high (it is that way in Australia) - generally that would be an exageration though to say that they are equivalent - and its kind of just a terminology thing. College does go further then seniour high though. End result of a university degree would be comparable I would think (for an undergrad) - on average (of course the US has outstanding top end universities which probably don't compare, or if they do they compare to very very few unis around the world).
kingkongrevenge 19y ago
> the US is a definitive leader in pharma, entertainment, technology, and education. The technology claim is a bit dodgy. The US runs a net trade deficit in all categories of scientific and industrial equipment. The US has a few pockets of highly valued intellectual property, but even this edge is slipping away. Pharma has big profits from activities in the US, because Americans have turned sedentary gorging and subsequent suicide pill popping into a subsidized national past-time. I wouldn't put this under the "strengths" category. The US is not a metaphorical man on an island. It is is a nation of wage earners. The best way to thing about the big picture situation is to simply observe that 200 years ago the average working man earned more or less the same wage anywhere in the world. Then the West shot ahead. Now this disequilibrium is being corrected, and it's fairly easy to argue that real wages in the West will fall and it won't be rising wages all 'round. There isn't sufficient iron in the earth's crust to support the car owning standard of living the whole planet now aspires to. As global wages rise, Americans will be priced out of their current standard of living.

michaelneale 19y ago

I think the college years in the US are partly similar to the senior years of what other countries may call senior high (it is that way in Australia) - generally that would be an exageration though to say that they are equivalent - and its kind of just a terminology thing. College does go further then seniour high though. End result of a university degree would be comparable I would think (for an undergrad) - on average (of course the US has outstanding top end universities which probably don't compare, or if they do they compare to very very few unis around the world).

kingkongrevenge 19y ago

> the US is a definitive leader in pharma, entertainment, technology, and education. The technology claim is a bit dodgy. The US runs a net trade deficit in all categories of scientific and industrial equipment. The US has a few pockets of highly valued intellectual property, but even this edge is slipping away. Pharma has big profits from activities in the US, because Americans have turned sedentary gorging and subsequent suicide pill popping into a subsidized national past-time. I wouldn't put this under the "strengths" category. The US is not a metaphorical man on an island. It is is a nation of wage earners. The best way to thing about the big picture situation is to simply observe that 200 years ago the average working man earned more or less the same wage anywhere in the world. Then the West shot ahead. Now this disequilibrium is being corrected, and it's fairly easy to argue that real wages in the West will fall and it won't be rising wages all 'round. There isn't sufficient iron in the earth's crust to support the car owning standard of living the whole planet now aspires to. As global wages rise, Americans will be priced out of their current standard of living.