This is the most unconsidered social degradation forcing America’s decline, which has occurred over the last three generations. We have committed economic suicide. However the article only addresses relative short term problems. The fatal problem is career destruction. No young person should go into any career that grows things or makes things. If you made any profit, some regulator ordered you to cease and desist, or some lawyer obtained a judgment against you. Any one with capital, moved it overseas. Entire industries have moved away, the only evidence that they once functioned in America are naked anchor bolts poking above foundations in abandoned buildings.
The result is a schism in authority. A behavior routinely performed by a sovereign government entity, e.g. levee design, is held harmless by society. However, if the action was done by a private party, they were sued out of existence, unless they could fund a train load of compliance attorneys/lobbyists. This organizational Darwinism forces gigantism; only huge corporations, who can contest government power, or demand subsidies, survive. GM, and the Chevy Volt is an example. It is a tiny car that costs $41,000, can only go 40 miles, and then takes hours to refill its “go juice”. Without the heavy thumb of government on the scales of commerce, it would fail in the market place.
However, over time, this process has, and will continue to weaken our nation. At some milestone, perhaps already passed, there is no return. It is not coincidence that the emergence of the litigious-regulatory state tracks the destruction of the middle class’ wealth. Billions transfer overseas with a mouse click, but family wage earners are immobile.
