Whittle Your Middle

With England today beginning to address its uncertain economic future, it may be worth exploring the takeaway lessons we can apply in revamping our own US economy.

As the European Union faces ghastly unemployment and bankruptcy in some of its member countries, it will likely look to Britain to help make good on its promises of widespread prosperity by asking it to chip in for the burden of bailouts. In seeking to maintain its sovereignty, however, Britain seems poised to strengthen its alliance with the only other world power who could give it leverage against the EU - its rebellious offspring, the United States.

I found this article by George Friedman very insightful in informing a discussion we will need to have if we are to avoid a crisis such as that in Europe. Friedman points out that the US economy of the past 50 years has resulted in a split personality that, if left to its own devices, will end in political and social upheaval. We may in fact not recognize what is left as America (perhaps leaving us in an uncomfortably symbiotic relationship with our ancestor across the Atlantic). 

 In an enlightening view on how restructuring corporate America and the transformation of the "traditional" family led to the decline of our Middle Class - and a crumbling foundation under the American identity:

"The greatest danger is one that will not be faced for decades but that is lurking out there. The United States was built on the assumption that a rising tide lifts all ships. That has not been the case for the past generation, and there is no indication that this socioeconomic reality will change any time soon. That means that a core assumption is at risk. The problem is that social stability has been built around this assumption -- not on the assumption that everyone is owed a living, but the assumption that on the whole, all benefit from growing productivity and efficiency.

...The left cannot be indifferent to the historical consequences of extreme redistribution of wealth. The right cannot be indifferent to the political consequences of a middle-class life undermined, nor can it be indifferent to half the population's inability to buy the products and services that businesses sell."

For a guy who consistently assures his readers that the United States faces no real political threat, Friedman seems to have changed his tune. If he's become convinced it's time to address that possibility, I'm inclined to give credence to the necessity for creative problem-solving to happen NOW.

So... who's with me?  (Coffee's on. I can do this all night)

"The United Kingdom Moves Away from the European Project is republished with permission of Stratfor."

"The Crisis of the Middle Class and American Power is republished with permission of Stratfor."