America Today
columnist: Mark Vogl

Topic: Economic Policy
Growth as the driving force in the economy must be replaced

During the second half of the twentieth century, the United States economy prospered based on a very simple, but unsustainable factor, growth. Growth in population, the maturing of the growing population, the growing markets overseas, and the opening of the US market to both overseas competition and overseas investment. In the first decade of the twenty-first century overly extended credit was also used to propel the US economy, though those days have come to end for the individual consumer, though not quite...for the federal government who continues to spend without restraint.

Now, before we go further, I have no degree in economics, and nothing but personal observation to support my theory of American economic success in the past, and my theory for what should be considered in the future.

Let's start with the premise that American economic prosperity was built on growth, specifically domestic population growth, and the opening of new overseas markets. The original idea being to find more consumers who could afford to purchase goods and services manufactured in the United States. As the post World War II generations aged more and more people came into the household market place.

Each new household not only needed a residence, whether it be rental or owned, but they needed an automobile, household furnishing, and appliances, electronic gadgets, clothes, food, etc. As the population continued to expand, consumer demand sustained business expansion. Development of stock market products such as mutual funds and retirement plans helped provide the necessary capital to not only make capital improvements to American industries, but provided a means to marshal capital for new industries in communications and artificial intelligence.

With the end of World War II, the redevelopment of western Europe and Japan initially provided markets for American goods. Though with time, these nations began to create competitors for American goods. An early example was Japanese cameras...but that spread too many almost all goods available in the United States. And as labor and infra-structure costs within America continued to rise, foreign goods were needed to sustain the living standards of Americans.

When domestic industries like housing construction sagged because of Women's liberation, the smaller American family, and less and less rising American consumers, opening the borders to tens of millions of illegals placed a new demand for housing, furnishings and appliances. It is placed a demand on school districts for the teachers pouring out America's colleges. The illegals placed a demand at the bottom of the American place which pushed everyone else up.

We have heard from our own government the crisis with Social Security because the base line of the pyramid has shrunk dramatically. Modern social engineering; the demeaning of motherhood and the traditional family flat lined American population growth, with a long term outlook of a shrinking population on the horizon.

But besides the obvious present day economic troubles connected with a shrinking population came the even more perilous fact that Asian mainland nations like the People Republic of China and India were two to four times larger than the United States with a potential to literally overwhelm the US in the mid to late 21st century.

So letting in the illegals was not only about creating an economic demand on the system but injecting a new blood line with an appetite for larger families. And a secondary benefit was the military application of Latin youth in wars to preserve Israeli security and protect access to large energy reserves.

And so here we are. Our economy is collapsing; the American marketplace has been captured by overseas competitors. The American industry that has survived has been largely taken over by foreign investment. America, as a nation is a shell of what it once was.

So, is the situation hopeless? Is America destined to become a secondary neighborhood of Europe, and a migration point for South Americans? Is national sovereignty dead? Is there no chance of re-establishing an American economy?

I would suggest that preservation of the American model is possible, though it may not look like the America of early times, either in borders, or in political philosophy.

The men who formed the Confederate States of America, in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1861, anticipated many of the problems we face today. Within their constitution they took steps to protect their new southern nation, and its citizens. For one thing, within the Confederate Constitution they placed a premium on being born in the South by making domestic birth a requirement for holding elected office. They placed a priority on retaining an agricultural basis, and limited dependence on domestic population growth for economic prosperity. Other wise changes to the Constitution included severely restricting the ability of Congress to increase spending, providing the President with line item veto authority and one six year term. The Constitution strictly prohibited the government from enacting bail outs for industries!

The future of America, if it is to retain its national identity, and economy must in some ways look like the Confederacy, though in other ways it needs to reject the Confederate Constitution. For example, the Confederate were more than a century ahead of globalism, relying on open borders to trade to provide most goods needed by the people of the South.

In the American future, national self-sufficiency should be the goal. That is not to say we can provide for all our own needs, but it rather that we should lean in that direction. If America is the nation of exceptionalism, as Rush Limbaugh so often says, than we should be able to produce quality, affordable cars, televisions, computers, etc.

At present our nation is shifting towards socialism. That must be reversed. Government workers cannot out earn their private sector counter parts... The very opposite should be the case. Because government employees are shielded from layoffs and competition, their salary - benefit structure should reflect that, being significantly lower. This would range across everything from education to health care.

Buy American should be a hallmark of the new 21st Century America. But this Buy America cannot be by restricting foreign goods, as it should be by policies which encourage innovation in American goods. If existing American car companies can't compete...let them go bankrupt, and encourage the creation of new, American owned manufacturers.

Either all these schools and colleges can make our economy as good as it was before they existed, or they should be shut down, and we should go back to what worked previously, hard work, self education, and internal domestic competition.

Lastly, we need to move away from the idea that making more widgets, selling more widgets is the best way to prosper. The key to long term economic prosperity is quality over quantity, and development of goods that fit the needs of the individual consumer. Variation, ingenuity and quality of craftsmanship should be the hallmarks of the new American business world.

Of course, besides a redesigning of the American economic base, there is a need to re-instill citizenship, national pride, and patriotism. In addition, Americans must return to their Christian faith.

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©2010 Mark Vogl, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Monday, March 8, 2010
Last modified: Monday, March 8, 2010

The views expressed in this article are those of Mark Vogl only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Mark Vogl is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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