"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
. ..

That's unsustainable in the longer term too, I think. We run trade
deficits with the USA. At the moment the Chinese demand for raw
materials is helping our economy along, haven't checked but I'd bet
we're running a fat surplus and our exports to China are in USD. You're
a nett importer of goods. I can't see how you can keep running a
country where your chief export seems to be US dollar debt.

My best guess is that we can't. To add complexity to the problem, our
consumptive habits are being taxed by increasing crude prices along with
higher demand for fossil fuels. One reason for this is that China will soon
become a larger consumer of Middle Eastern oil than the US. The influence
US demand for oil has on crude prices will ultimately be less important in
light of that of mainland China.

The USA is living in the past in many respects. Our labor force can't come
to grips with the boilerplate fact that in a world economy the wages they've
grown accustomed to are simply not reasonable if they wish to keep their
jobs from being exported. Further, as you imply, we've evolved into a net
importer of consumer goods with a continuing decline in exports. To further
compound the economic miasma the government has begun to shoulder larger and
larger financial obligations, straining an already-strained middle class to
pay for it all. It's a recipe for disaster, and no one, especially our
legislators, want to talk about it. It's not politically expedient to
discuss such things, apparently, but the next generation or two won't have
much choice. We're leaving our kids and grandkids a dismal legacy. Al
Qaeda won't have to destroy us--we seem to be on course for doing that to
ourselves.

Max