The 2008 implosion, no one seems to have seen it coming. Europe teetered. Greece went full scale. And people have been watching. There is a feeling among a sizable chunk of the electorate that if somehow the clock could be turned back, things would be okay, as if turning the clock back is an option, or even desirable.
Trade and immigration, both good things, get blamed for productivity gains through technological innovation. Humanity has longed for productivity gains, and now that it is here, people are complaining.
First, the big picture. 2008 and the aftermath has blown the cover from America and Europe. Both have been exposed to have accumulated trillions of dollars in bad loans while writing off the Global South as not creditworthy. This has been racism.
Trade is a good thing, and if it is not a good thing why don't the 50 states try to become 50 different economies? Bill Clinton created a pretty good economy, but he could not have done it without NAFTA and some of the other trade deals. But he, and his party, and especially his chosen successor messed up towards the end when they should have been the most vigilant. The record surplus of 2000 was allowed to be thwacked. I don't remember either Bill Clinton or Al Gore saying half the surplus should go into education and health because now it was a knowledge economy. Al Gore spent all his time running against Bill Clinton. Bush was the only one with a plan for what to do with Bill Clinton's money. The plan was to steal it on behalf of the super rich, but it was still a plan, and the only plan on the table. The Democrats did not have a human capital plan.
A trillion dollars in tax cuts, another trillion for drugs for seniors, a trillion to destroy Iraq, which got mistaken for the Al Qaeda, and a trillion to rebuild Iraq: all that was going to send a signal to Wall Street to go reckless, and it did. And Wall Street "cops" were taken off the beat very conveniently. The watchdogs were made weak systematically.
Trade is a good thing. It, coupled with other things like balanced budgets, gave you a record surplus. But trade is only a good thing if you know what to do with the money it brings you, apparently.
Immigration is a good thing. Eradicate immigration and America is no longer an entrepreneurial country. Immigration is in the DNA of America.
The thing is you can not globalize capital and finance and trade and drag your feet on the idea of a world government. Europeans tried the idea of an economic union without a political union. It does not work.
The anxieties of the middle class are real. The anxieties of the working class are real. But that working class needs to take responsibility for the political choices it has made and threatens to make all over again. You voted for a party that prevented the economically sound idea of a $3 trillion stimulus in 2009. With that the recovery would have come much faster and stronger with much of the money going straight to Main Street. Instead there was a much, much bigger monetary stimulus with all the money going straight to Wall Street. That was money printed on your behalf. You vote for the party of gridlock. You vote for the racist party. You vote for the sexist party. You threaten to vote for a guy who is known in New York circles as Mr. Bankruptcy. This guy has lighted the racial fire under your bottoms so he can give himself and his pals a tax cut. Where is your common sense? Think.
The biggest news is not trade or immigration or China. Jobs are also disappearing in China. The biggest news is technological innovation moving at warp speed. And this is supposed to be a good thing. The dream that humanity has harbored for thousands of years is about to be realized. Everybody wins if there is accompanying political innovation.
And the innovation is one person one vote democracy taken to its logical local and global conclusions.
The productivity gains are about to be so large that many of the old rules will no longer apply. The company ownership structure itself is going to be challenged. Maybe We The People are meant to own 10% of all companies. Perhaps that percentage should go up for companies that will show astounding levels of productivity gains. If your productivity gain is going to be 10,000%, perhaps We The People ought to own 30% of it.
Like it or not, the world is moving towards something called the Universal Basic Income. And why would you not like it?
The productivity gains are about to become astronomical. So far the politics and economics have been liquid water physics. We are about to experience steam physics. Many of the old rules will no longer apply.
This is not socialism. This is the Age Of Abundance. It is a new paradigm that asks for the rewriting of rules. And Donald Trump has no clue what I am talking about.
I read an article a few days back that showed your smartphone has free stuff that people in the 1969 to 1989 time window paid almost a million dollars for. Which basically makes you a millionaire. Everybody with a smartphone today would have looked a millionaire to the people of the ancient era of 1969-1989.
This productivity gain thing is real, it is unstoppable. Rejoice. This is good news. But what has happened is nothing compared to what is about to happen.
If you are a white person wanting a white president, I recommend white person Hillary. The Donald is completely clueless. He would fail the SAT today. His brain has been fried with racist, sexist venom. On bad manners alone he would go to hell. Read your Bible. Donald Trump is Sodom and Gomorrah two in one. Everyone in New York knows that.
