At first glance, the news that China’s economy has surpassed that of the U.S. will probably result in yawns from the average guy on the street.
What difference does it make?
China’s population is a lot bigger than America’s. Big deal!
How does it affect my life?
But it is precisely at seminal moments like this, when another country’s economy is bigger than the economy of the United States of America for the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, that we should take a collective look at reality to figure out why.
Why is China producing $17.6 trillion in goods and services this year while the U.S. is producing $17.4 trillion?
Why does China now account for 16.5 percent of the global economy while the U.S. represents 16.3?
Only 14 years ago, the U.S. produced three times as much as China, so how did this change occur so rapidly?
Is it really important, significant, meaningful?
It is important, significant and meaningful.
Economic power translates directly to political and military power.
So why is America on the decline? Why are we not producing like we once did? Why is our economy stagnating?
- America’s birth rate has significantly declined over the last 40 years. It coincides with a striking increase in abortion. Some 60 million American children have been aborted since 1973’s Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling. That represents a lot more than 60 million lives. Over 40 years, many of those children would have been expected to reproduce by now. Most would have had children. Some would have had grandchildren by now. But they didn’t. They weren’t born. But that’s only part of the birth rate story – a big one, but just a part. Coinciding with that phenomenon is the fact that Americans, like other Westerners, are just not having as many kids as they did previously. Last year, America’s birth rate hit a record low. Americans are barely reproducing at the rate necessary to maintain the existing population. Americans are not getting married like they once did – and they aren’t staying married. They are living more for themselves with less thought to the next generation and the sacrifices that traditionally have been made for the next generation. It’s not difficult to see how all that translates to less economic activity – less production.
- Nearly 100 million Americans are not working. I’m not talking about kids or retired folks. I’m talking about one of four Americans between the age of 25 and 54 are not working. How is that possible? It’s possible because one doesn’t have to work in America to eat. One doesn’t have to work to watch television. One doesn’t have to work to have a cell phone. One doesn’t have to work to have health care. One doesn’t have to work to have the necessities of life and then some. That also was not true 40 years ago.
- Then there’s government. It could be accurately called “the non-productive sector.” Government produces nothing, but it has grown exponentially in the last 40 years at every level – local, state and federal. It employs more people to produce nothing than ever before. But that’s not quite true. Government does produce something – regulation. And, good, bad or ugly, regulations always do one thing – constrict production. What else does government do? It redistributes wealth. Most of that redistribution is in the form that actually provides incentives to Americans not to work, contributing to the trend toward less production on a whole. Government is now primarily in the business of ensuring that people don’t have to work to live. Government also borrows a lot of money. The federal government is now $18 trillion upside down – meaning it owes more than America produces in an entire year. That, too, is bad for productivity – especially when you consider how most of that money is spent. None of it produces anything.
- How about the work ethic America once had? Do you think that still exists? I’m sure it does for many, but for most? For all?
Who’s to blame?
We all are.
America is going down the tubes. We’re in decline as a nation. We’re abandoning the values that made it the greatest nation in the world – the beacon of freedom and prosperity. We’ve squandered what we inherited. We’re actually living on borrowed money – money borrowed from the children we’re not having any more.
Any questions?
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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