America Today - Dangerously Vulnerable

15 Reasons Why America Is In A Major State Of Decline


-Wholesale sellout of core strategic assets to foreign acquirers: according to official figures, more than 8,000 American companies have been sold to foreign corporations in the last 10 years for at least $1.2 trillion (US Dept of Commerce)


-Decline of vital industries through bankruptcy, foreign predatory competition, and foreign acquisition: foreign interests now own a majority of US industries in areas like mining, publishing/movies, cement, mineral manufacturing, rubber and plastics, and engine manufacturing and own substantial portions in areas like pharmaceuticals, glass, coal, chemicals, industrial machinery, transportation equipment, petroleum, and others (Internal Revenue Service)


-Inability to manufacture competitively: American manufacturers suffer a 30+ percent structural cost disadvantage compared to overseas competitors through taxes, health and pension benefits, litigation, regulation, and energy costs – this disadvantage is more than the total labor cost of production in many other countries (National Association of Manufacturers)


-Overdependence on imports: $1 in $4 of US consumption of manufactured goods now goes immediately and directly to imports (US Dept of Commerce)


-Massive wealth transfer to foreign ownership: our trade deficit, at $723 billion in 2005, is funding foreign competitors with $1.4 million per minute of our dollars or $2,400 per US person per year spent on imported cars, clothes, toys, and thousands of other products (US Census)


-Loss of job and career opportunities for people at all educational levels: 3 million high-paying manufacturing jobs lost over past 5 years (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)


-Transition to low-paying services-oriented (“servant”) economy: high-paying goods-producing industries have lost net employment over the past 25 years while non-tradable service-providing employment has nearly doubled (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)


-Insourcing of foreign manufacturers destroys our domestic industries, takes profits and taxes overseas, and provides only low-skill jobs for American workers: foreign manufacturers operating in the US now account for over 20 percent of our exports and manufacturing assets, and a large percentage of our employment (Internal Revenue Service)


-Foreign financing of vast majority of government debt: foreign countries now control 47 percent of our total federal deficit and finance nearly 100 percent of all new borrowings – our competitors are now our bankers (US Federal Reserve)


-Outsourcing key manufacturing, research, and design: unchecked offshore outsourcing benefits individual companies and shareholders but destroys entire industries and communities


-Lost scientific, engineering, technological prowess: in 2004, China and India graduated a combined 950,000 engineers versus 70,000 in the US. US ranks near the bottom of science/math proficiency (Associated Press)


-Wealth shift into less productive assets: residential real estate now represents a record 38 percent of household net worth on record over-inflated home valuations and record mortgage levels (US Federal Reserve)


-Record levels of personal and government debt: household liabilities at record levels, federal government adding record levels of debt each year financed mostly by foreign countries, trade deficits transferring unprecedented accelerating amounts of wealth to foreign hands each year (US Federal Reserve)


-Misleading commonly used economic statistics: misleading incomplete statistics like GDP, job creation, and productivity belie our crumbling economic infrastructure


-Proven failed trade policies and other legislation contributing to our demise continue unchallenged: destroying our industry and allowing our assets to be sold or taken from us


If these trends continue unabated, what future could we possibly have? This wealth of this country was created under far different conditions than those that now exist. We are being misled into believing a false sense of perpetual invulnerable self-sufficiency. We largely fail to acknowledge just how extremely vulnerable we are. Given the scale of the problems outlined below, any single major disruption to our economy could have devastating consequences. Decide for yourself.

http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/showarticle.asp?ID=1045