09-25-2008, 04:22 AM
We've become a service economy. Service economies don't create wealth they merely shift it around. All of the industries we once had that did create wealth have been ceded to others. The dot.com bubble created some wealth but not the way General Motors once did.
The housing boom created no wealth. Unless we find a way to start creating wealth again no bailout will mean anything over either the short or long term. If we were to pour the money we are about to waste on a bailout with the money we currently waste in Iraq and the rest of our military budget into creating a new industry aimed at alternative energy, we might just create some wealth from that.
We must find something we can actually do to replace all those lost industries. We can no longer compete with the rest of the world in old industries, we need to develop new ones.
The housing boom created no wealth. Unless we find a way to start creating wealth again no bailout will mean anything over either the short or long term. If we were to pour the money we are about to waste on a bailout with the money we currently waste in Iraq and the rest of our military budget into creating a new industry aimed at alternative energy, we might just create some wealth from that.
We must find something we can actually do to replace all those lost industries. We can no longer compete with the rest of the world in old industries, we need to develop new ones.