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The wealthiest nation in the world? Wrong!

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   12 comments
Message Michael Payne

I am so weary of hearing this same old, worn out phrase "we are the wealthiest nation in the world." On what planet do the people who utter that non-factual statement live? While that was once a fact, we need to accept reality; those days are over, we are living in a new world in which America is just trying to survive. The once largest creditor nation in the world has become the largest debtor nation. And we have only ourselves to blame.

If you measure nations by the largest total gross national product, the United States still comes out on top. But when the measurement is done based on the largest per capita gross national product, the U.S. ranks 4th (IMF) or 6th (World Bank). That is clear proof that we are not the wealthiest nation in the world; but that is not the worst of it.

It should be understood that "gross" national product does not reflect the actual wealth of a nation, just as gross income is not indicative of an individual's actual financial condition.

So let's take a more in-depth look into what actual wealth really is. Let's start with this observation. If you are the largest debtor nation in the world, i.e., you have maxed out all your "credit cards" from China, Japan and other nations, you have a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion, total national debt approaching $13 trillion, and an economy that is near collapse, then you are not the wealthiest nation by any measure; you are America; a nation in a serious state of economic regression.

Okay, but even though America is in a critical financial condition, there is a way to address and solve our dilemma. To do so we will need to rebuild our entire national infrastructure; that must include our highways, bridges, waterways, the electrical grid, and rail systems. And, in addition, we need to develop a new 21st century manufacturing base to include a myriad of new alternate sources of energy.

Our old manufacturing base has been disseminated, those millions of lost jobs are now in China and other nations and they are not going to return. We have no choice but to rebuild this major element of our economy because a consumer driven economy cannot be sustained when millions of unemployed workers don't have the disposable income with which to buy goods and services. So, in addition to rebuilding our infrastructure we must create a new and vibrant manufacturing sector.

So, how exactly are we going to accomplish all this when we don't have the funding and have maxed out our foreign credit cards? I like "what if" analyses so here is just one more. Our annual defense budget, as I keep harping about, is nearly $1 trillion with all the various elements included. That's a fact. As I have previously proposed let's ask the question, "what if we reduced that budget by one-half, or about $500 billion?" What might then happen?

First, the remaining annual Pentagon budget of $500 billion (that's $500,000,000,000) would still be a monumental sum that would continue to make the U.S. the most powerful military force in the world many times over. The safety of Americans would not be compromised in the least if the military scaled back its massive, bloated empire of about 750 military installations worldwide.

Secondly, we would have many thousands of troops returning home which would create a huge pool of labor for which there would be, initially, a significant lack of jobs. But that situation could be remedied fairly easily. First we would have $500 billion to be transferred to a new budget we could call, for example, a "national rebuilding" budget. This would facilitate the transfer of funds from the defense budget into a domestic program to rebuild America's infrastructure and its manufacturing.

And here is the model upon which we could begin this process. We have a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 34,000 civilians and soldiers whose responsibility is to deliver engineering services all over America as well as worldwide. This involves building and maintaining America's infrastructure and providing military facilities, maintaining and improving this nation's waterways, improving hurricane and storm damage reduction infrastructure. The Corps also cleans sites contaminated with hazardous, toxic or radioactive waste and material in an effort to sustain the environment.

So we currently have thousands of military personnel engaged in improving America's infrastructure and making it safer. Would it not be a natural step to take that mission and expand it dramatically by involving thousands more of our returning military in that effort to rebuild America? If that appears to be a foreign, illogical thought, just think of all the times that we have heard of our military being used to help in the rebuilding of infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is it perfectly okay to rebuild the infrastructure of those countries we now occupy but not at all okay to do the same for our own nation?

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Doing this could provide a massive shot in the arm to facilitate a real economic recovery, rather than trying to restore the old one. While rebuilding our infrastructure we could be also be working on the development of new forms of badly need energy. These efforts could create millions of new jobs that would strengthen America for the future and restore our standing as a premier economic power.

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I can envision using the multi-thousands of our returning military as the main workforce in this "rebuilding of America program." As these military personnel finish their service commitments they could simply continue the same work, but then as civilian workers. This entire process would create the greatest exercise in retraining of Americans for new jobs ever. Is there any better way that we could solve our massive employment problems?

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