Let me start by noting a few things about myself. I’m not the ugliest guy on the planet. Not the dumbest, Not the most indigent. I’m not the most devoid of any characteristic usually thought of as desirable. Does that make me a world class kind of guy?
Alas, no. Now let’s see how this personal evaluation formula stacks up against an evaluation of the present U.S. economy.
We don’t have the largest national debt compared to GDP among major economies. Japan’s ratio is almost three times as bad. Our nearly 9 percent unemployment looks positively glowing compared to EU members such as Portugal (11 percent), Ireland (14 percent) and Spain (20 percent) As bad as the pain of government program cutbacks at the state as well as the federal levels in this country, it’s happy days compared to what’s going on in the U.K.
Among what’s laughingly still called the developed nations, we can thus take pride in not yet earning the title ‘worst of the fiscal litter.’ Which is why we can still fund 40 percent of our federal budget with borrowed money, half from foreigners, notably from China. A country, which you may not have heard, is expected to surpass us as the world largest economy around 2016 — a mere five years hence.
Not being the worst of litter among developed countries also meant the value of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies actually rose the same day S&P issued its warning about a possible default if we didn’t get our fiscal house in order.
So here’s what I’m thinking. If you’re over 60 and American, you’ve lived most of your life in the best of all possible economic worlds and will probably enjoy most of the perks the rump of this economy is still capable of providing. If you’re under that, especially in your twenties or thirties, tough luck kids.
Of course if your Mandarin or Portuguese is good enough, you might still do the dance in China or Brazil. And in India you can get by with English, though it wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your Urdu as well.
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