Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Our "Race to the Bottom"

Ol' Remus predicts a "race to the bottom" in his latest Flash Point article to explain how he sees an economic collapse here in the States.  Go read it in full to enjoy some of the finest writing on the subject.  I particularly appreciated these dash-of-the-pen comments with regards to the tax-receivers among us:
They ask us to believe it takes a village to raise a child, a confession of blatant irresponsibility in itself. Some day the village will tell them to raise their own kids. One need only witness their rage when treated fairly to understand what they're after: immediate elevation to an adored nobility without constraint or responsibility. Until then they see "assistance" as assisting a conspiracy to withhold their due which, we're to imagine, condemns them to outlawry wholly alien to their nature.
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"Assistance" is now defended as an escalating bribe paid knowingly, if not cheerfully, to contain the wreckage.  
That second quote touches on the "secret pact" I wrote about in February: EBT: Is It Enough?



Karl Denninger writes: Arithmetic: How Badly You Have Been Screwed at Market-Ticker:

This chart shows the output per hour worked for Americans across the labor force.

It shows that today one hour of work at the end of 2013 produces 169.8% of the output that one hour of work produced in 1980.

Now stop and read that last sentence again -- very, very slowly.

Read it as many times as you have to until you understand it.

You should have 170% of the standard of living you obtained in 1980 from one hour of labor.

Let me ask: Do you?
Read it all.  If this topic interests you, be sure to go read my article on Inflation at The American Thinker.

3 comments:

Robert What? said...

Very interesting take on the issues. As a small business entrepreneur, I have been a taxpaying (in spades) producer for many decades. I don't think I could be anything else. However, the upcoming generations don't have the same "work ethic" for lack of a better phrase. They have been raised to believe that someone else will take care of everything. And so far, they have not been disappointed in that belief. That means that the entire system is running on the momentum of people like me and you. What happens when that momentum runs out? Either though attrition, or the producers catching on that it is a sucker's game? That is when the whole corrupt system come crashing down.

Karl said...

Comrade RobertW,

First, you have something they cannot redistribute: pride. You did build that and you will never look away from that man in the mirror.

I share your unease with America today. I'm lucky, as I have an adult son who does have the work ethic and desire to succeed on his own. His friends do too. I have to believe that there is a bell curve in play here, and the losers of society get all the attention, but that the next generation of people like you are in the shadows innovating, working, and raising good families.

The "coming collapse" gets a lot of play, and I agree that "what cannot be sustained, won't." I'm less inclined to think of it occurring as a single-event crash than a steady decline where real winners can and will prevail.

Robert What? said...

Congrats to you on your son.

My son (20s) is still trying to figure out what he wants to do. He is working for dad until he does.

He did get a lot of his naturally conservative attitudes turned leftward by his time at college. (If I knew then what I know now his college years would have been a lot different.) But at least he didn't come out believing that the world owes him something.

I also like your optimistic attitude and will to adopt that as much as possible.