By BEN STEIN
Published: May 23, 2009
THE future is now. To see how history might look back on our economic crisis, we bring you this excerpt from “The Decline and Fall of the United States of America,” Beijing University Department of Western Hemisphere History (Beijing Press, 2089):
The demise of an economy as mighty as that of the United States as of 2000 cannot be accounted for by anything less than deeply mistaken and foolish decision-m
aking within that nation’s ruling circles.No amount of foreign competition or resource shortage has historically caused such a catastrophe. However, policy actions undertaken without proof or even evidence of their efficacy have historically done so. (See “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Gibbon, 1776.)
Starting from an extremely strong economic and fiscal position in the year 2000, with surpluses running far into the future in the federal budget and a highly positive outlook for its ability to handle its future pension and health obligations, the United States, under the administration of George W. Bush, a Republican, undertook one of the most mystifyingly self-destructive policy actions yet seen in a democracy.
Taxes were lowered sharply for well-off and other taxpayers, while government expenditures rose in almost every area, civil and defense. This, in short order, led to a multiplication of the size of the federal budget deficit.
The theory behind this puzzling behavior was known as “supply-side economics.” Magically, it was supposed to increase productivity, the number of hours worked, and tax receipts to the point that the losses in federal revenue were more than offset. There never was any historical evidence that this would happen, at least not as a consequence of the tax cuts, and the deficit, in fact, grew. So did class antagonisms over the ever-larger share of the national income taken by the wealthy.
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Well it seems to me that we in Malaysia are suffering from high inflation and boom in our economy, we have to import in foreign labour for undesirable jobs that none of our citizens wants to work at. China, Indonesia and Singapore are also booming, an example would be a dessert I bought a month ago was $ 1.20 in local currency and currently is selling at $ 1.80 which shows high inflation... The job market is also good with 2 jobs available for 1 worker, leading to high wage growth, hence we have to import in labour. We found out after March 2009 that we were not going to go into a Recession, imagine our surprise when we were told we were going to go into a Recession, we suspect we were saved by China's boom and growth ! You should all not complain so much and job hop to a higher pay as welll as use your money to buy expensive things as inflation will eat up the value of your currency. Life is good and money is easy to get nowadays, its just that you are too lazy to work hard for it, Americans are as lazy as pigs !
ReplyDeleteWell it seems to me that we in Malaysia are suffering from high inflation and boom in our economy, we have to import in foreign labour for undesirable jobs that none of our citizens wants to work at. China, Indonesia and Singapore are also booming, an example would be a dessert I bought a month ago was $ 1.20 in local currency and currently is selling at $ 1.80 which shows high inflation... The job market is also good with 2 jobs available for 1 worker, leading to high wage growth, hence we have to import in labour. We found out after March 2009 that we were not going to go into a Recession, imagine our surprise when we were told we were going to go into a Recession, we suspect we were saved by China's boom and growth ! You should job hop to a higher salary and spend your salary on expensive things as inflation is high. There is so much money available nowadays and millions can be made easily if you are willing to work hard ! Its just that Americans are so lazy, as lazy as pigs !
ReplyDeleteWell it seems to me that we in Malaysia are suffering from high inflation and boom in our economy, we have to import in foreign labour for undesirable jobs that none of our citizens wants to work at. China, Indonesia and Singapore are also booming, an example would be a dessert I bought a month ago was $ 1.20 in local currency and currently is selling at $ 1.80 which shows high inflation... The job market is also good with 2 jobs available for 1 worker, leading to high wage growth, hence we have to import in labour. We found out after March 2009 that we were not going to go into a Recession, imagine our surprise when we were told we were going to go into a Recession, we suspect we were saved by China's boom and growth !
ReplyDelete