LogFAQs > #963907947

Most of what people are complaining about today are the consequences of global socioeconomic factors outside of anyone's direct control. The US basically stole its way into the top economic powerhouse position after Europe was devastated by two world wars (there's a reason why everyone thinks of the 1950s as the US economic Golden Age). But with Europe having recovered while China is finally shaking off the handicaps of being fucked over by the West and then their own post WWII problems, now there's suddenly competition again, and the US economy is faltering because we're not competitive enough, and we never should have been in the #1 spot in the first place. Not helped by the fact that we've basically shifted from an industrial to a service economy.

Yea no. This isn't what happened.

America always had a strong industrial and economic base. It's primary problem was it's isolationism and focus on westward expansion to successfully claim the rest of it's current landmass. It took a while to do this as well as industrialize and it didn't help that it got hit by a depression, but following WWII the depression was gone and in industry was in place. America could finally leverage all it's potential into growth.

China, meanwhile, was a backwater nation stuck in the prior century and consisted largely of rural farmers. It was further hampered by the rise of communism and Mao's policies which caused massive problems (such as driving the sparrows away which lead to mass swarms of locusts which ate all the crops). It's only recently that it's managed to shake off the problems of it's past to grow and even now it's not as 'good' as they like to claim.

The problem is that America's industry has been shot over generations while it's economy has stagnated and industrial capacity consistently reduced. The shift from an industrial to service based economy and exportation of jobs meant that we currently lack a lot of the ability to self-sustain. It's part of why former industrial cities are becoming desolate and decaying places. Because they were growing powerful because of their industry and now that's been exported overseas meaning they've lost their purpose.

America's problems started with Bush and both the war in Afghanistan (Iraq was stupid, yes, but nowhere near as problematic) and the divisive nature of his election. It's only gotten worse from there due to various issues across Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden. We've also experienced the rise of mega-corporations that can utterly dominate any local business. Beforehand, while large retail existed, it has it's expansion issues and simply couldn't leverage the level of power it wields now.

America's got a lot of problems and I'm convinced it's doomed and one of the major reasons why is it's corporations being greedy and more than willing to gut for personal gain; however it not only earned it's place at the top legitimately but China's own failure is both due to the policies enacted under their own communist system and isn't as truthful as they like to make it out to be.