slade said:

“Whatever your preferred forensics paradigm, it looks like we are back in the “Rosie the Riveter” phase of the cycle where we have to start the drum beat for the resilience and creativity of the American people.”

It was a different world from 1939-1969. America was the only nation left standing after WW-II, i.e. Europe, Russia and China were bombed out wrecks. Our economic infrastructure had been recently transformed from agrarian to hyper-efficient industrial by WW-II. We were also self sufficient in petroleum, iron and copper. Very important, we had accepted a brain transplant from Europe where much of Europe’s intelligensia had fled to America from the Nazis.

Most of those bets are now off. Our nonrenewable resource base in the continential U.S. was been largely depleted. Much of our manufacturing infrastructure was shutdown after becoming noncompetitive against Japan, South Korea and China. We allowed our knoweldge base to dwindle, e.g. too many kids got law degrees rather than degrees in engineering and science. Worst of all, we lied to ourselves by saying we were maintaining our economy as a “knowledge or service industry”. In truth, we maintainined our standard of living on credit by spending down the equity previously created by our fathers and grandfathers.

Our current crisis is a consequence of all of these factors. Simply saying that we need to go back to Rosie the Riveter doesn’t hold up. Where’s the factory for Rosie to work in? Where’s the steel for Rosie to rivet? Where’s the energy to drive Rosie’s rivet gun? Does Rosie even know how to use a rivet gun? Is Rosie willing to work for wages only slightly better than those of a Chinese industrial slave?

We’ve dug ourselves into a deep hole. That hole is going to get a whole lot deeper if the Messiah gets elected President and pursues a socialist agenda. Quite frankly, I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this hole. I guess the first thing we need to do is stop digging…