Rebuilding a banana republic (ours, that is)
If you had any doubts about the challenges we face during the next four years, look no further than yesterday’s deficit figures.
Americans racked up half a trillion dollars in unpaid bills in the first quarter of this year alone.
That astonishing figure only accounts for our Federal government. The states are spending way beyond their means, too, as are many cities and local governments.
And don’t get me started on individual Americans, and businesses. We’re all mortgaged and credit-carded up to their individual and collective eyebrows.
All sides agree that we have to cut back. Liberals decry the consumer economy that’s all about buying cheap junk from Wal-Mart. Conservatives rail against big-spending governments.
But we’re just beginning to see the dimensions of our collective hang-over. Trimming earmarks and eating out less often won’t touch this problem.
Nor — in the long run — will even the biggest stimulus package revive a fundamentally broken economy.
Here are the two fundamental problems that we’ll all have to fix:
1. We have to become a producer society again, not a consumer society. That means we create value with work, with a premium placed back on things like manufacturing. The notion that Americans could be the world’s white collar workers, while everybody else got their hands dirty, is officially dead. Countries that build things get rich. Countries that don’t build things stagnate.
2. America has to be energy-independent, for economic reasons but also to protect our national security. That means pushing forward with strict mileage standards for automobiles and some kind of carbon tax, both of which will spur innovation, efficiency, and lifestyle changes. A fringe benefit? We also make progress on climate change.
These goals will require a massive shift in the way we think about our society. Free trade? Long commutes to work? Suburban sprawl? Huge entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare? It’s all on the table.
The truth is that the old version of America was simply unsustainable, even before George W. Bush took office.
For Obama to succeed, he’ll have to do more than clean up a few messes. He’ll have to think as big as Franklin Roosevelt about what the next America should look like.
Tags: economy
