ensure a rapidly rising in standard of living, they go in order to help insure that they will maintain a middle class standard.Many people believe that a bright future lies in free trade with emerging markets. This is based on the idea that we will all make something that someone else wants. History has not shown this to be the case. Emerging markets grow a much higher rate than our own. This growth comes from developing export markets to developed nations. We are buying from them. These emerging markets also attract our investment capital because they promise higher rates of return. This leads to a decline in investment at home.Americas optimism often blinds us to the changes happening in the world. Trends seem to indicate that America will not maintain its position of superiority in the world indefinitely. In actuality, our position has been steadily declining for decades. Maintaining an unrealistic optimism about America regaining its former position or even maintain what we have now is farfetched. America needs to develop a realistic economic policy based on the world today. However, it seems as if we have lost our bearing. Unlike the dramatic consequences of a market crash or a sudden steep recession, the damage done by slow economic growth accumulates gradually and mostly imperceptibly. After the 1970s we as a nation have struggled to make ends meet in our national budget. This is something we did not have to worry about before. In the 1930s we financed Social Security with no worries of how we would pay for it. No broad political consensus opposed massive pensions paid out. We also mistakenly believed Lyndon Johnson could finance the Great Society and fight the Vietnam War without raising taxes. And why not? Economic growth had always exempted us from serious personal sacrifices as we paid for the social and other domestic programs that we agreed were necessary. By the time of the Health-Care debate in 19...
