Editor's note: Written in 2004. We tried to inform the country then - our direction and priorities were not right. This has continued unchanged causing our present plight.
The tiny island nation of Japan provides many fine examples of what a country can do if it is not
bogged down in futile wars and is intelligently governed. Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and
China have copied Japan’s model and have become extremely successful.
The U.S. is a great country with enormous potential. However, mismanagement and poor economic
decisions, have squandered the power and wealth that previous generations worked so hard to create.
To put this in perspective, this is how the U.S. compares with a country as small as Japan:
• Japan only has 4 percent of our land mass (smaller than California) and is 90 percent mountainous and
infertile.
• Japan has minimal natural resources - no oil, no coal, no iron ore, not even timber, just fish!
• To manufacture a product, Japan must import all of its required resources. Even after these expenses,
they have a huge annual balance of trade surplus with the U.S. and has also accumulate one-third of
the world's savings recorded in previous years.
• Few Americans realize that Japan generates on par or higher average wage rates than the U.S.
• The average Japanese family has a consistent yearly savings while the average American does not
have any savings.
• Japan had a record $236 billion current account surplus (trade plus interest income and other receipts)
with the rest of the world in 2007 - while the US had a record $731 billion balance trade deficit to the
rest of the world during that same period.
Japan must be doing something right! Better planning, direction, and a more responsive government are
keys to their success. They have learned a great deal from us and have improved on it. Perhaps it would be
wise for us to study their improvements for our own benefit.
Compare this to:
• As of April, 2008, the U.S. has borrowed nearly $600 billion from Japan and $502 billion from China
to keep our government running. This Money is also used to give ourselves tax refunds, pay for our
internal budget deficits (over $10 trillion), and our external balance of trade deficit (2008 alone
estimated to exceed $800 billion).
• The U.S. has two-and-a-half times Japan's population, plus much more land and natural resources, but
we are producing less, importing more, and borrowing more than ever before as well as selling our
irreplaceable assets to pay for imports and debt.
• The U.S. is presently relinquishing much of its manufacturing power to outsourcing (giving away our
technology and jobs to foreign companies and have them produce for us in their country; thus totally
dismantling our industrial base) and insourcing (subsidizing foreign companies to manufacturer in the
U.S. to produce for their benefit and their profit, which quickly displaces many of our factories).
• We are becoming vulnerably dependent on foreign companies for jobs and products. In Central Ohio
alone (a seven county area within 60 miles of Columbus), there are 74 Japanese owned and 67
European owned American corporations that control a large percentage of the manufacturing in the
region.
• American owned manufacturing is becoming obsolete and second rate. We are no longer competitive
with Japan, China and others.
• The U.S. is the only major industrialized country that depends on foreign suppliers for large amounts
of steel and other critical inputs needed by strategic industries.
• The U.S. is selling many of its best companies to foreign corporations (example: Arco and Amoco oil
companies are now British owned, IBM PC is now a Chinese company, Lucent Technologies and RCA
are now French, Zenith is Korean, Frigidaire is Swedish and Westinghouse Nuclear is Japanese).
All this is happening while the U.S. is trying to fight four wars; the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, the
international war on terrorism, and an Economic War at home, which we are losing. We are incurring massive debt and are dependent on foreign sources for funding to continue these wars.
Every American should think about the direction towards which we are heading and the dangers and
vulnerabilities we face if this course is maintained. Major changes must take place or we will face
unimaginable problems and soon see an America we won't recognize.
Can't America Do Better?
Click
here
to contact your Representative in Congress.
Unless the above article is already copyrighted, this article is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License,
EIC grants permission to use this article in whole or in part provided attribution is given,
preferably in the form of a link back to EconomyInCrisis.org.
Jan 2009 - $4.3 B
Dec 2008 - $ 5.27 B
Nov 2008 - $4.97 B
Oct 2008 - $6.04 B