A Modest Proposal For The 21st Century

The following is an excerpt. The complete satire may be found at

THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU

by Stephanie Baselice

The once mighty US economy remains in deep and dangerous waters. Although the markets have largely recovered from the “Great Recession” the general public remains wary and depressed, which is potentially bad for business. It is also a political minefield. Unemployment floats around 10 % by official standards, closer to 20% if one includes those who have ceased looking for work. Despite modest job gains in 2010 at current rates employment growth will take 5 or 6 years to reach pre-recession unemployment levels of 5-6%. Indeed, it may be that the problem lies deeper and that many of the workers recently laid off during this difficult time were comparatively unproductive and will not need to be replaced. We may well shoulder a 10% unemployment rate far into the future. In any case, once high hopes for “change” have been dashed against the rocks of a deep and extended downturn. Inflammatory rhetoric from liberal elites and labor groups about the possibility of shifting economic focus to risky and untried ventures in “green jobs” puts the American way of life at risk. Quality of life measures rank America lower and lower, and despite relatively high worker productivity, our creative and technological edge is growing dull. Rising nations such as India and China will soon surpass us in critical areas such as inventing new products. Education and healthcare are thankfully still private enterprises, yet they consume increasingly large shares of the economic pie for most families. National solutions to these problems are out of the question, of course. Any reasonable person understands that such solutions must be too expensive and disruptive to the profits of current business leaders to even be considered. Yet recent pro-business political gains may well evaporate if the recovery does not soon produce sufficient job growth to avoid a broad based re-evaluation of the political and economic system.

Of course when it comes to the job market, we have been in rough waters a long time. Over the past thirty years, the ever greater economic growth once fueled by manufacturing has been essentially replaced by highly lucrative financial services, largely related to consumer debt. Loose credit has been very, very profitable for a long time, allowing ordinary people to purchase more and more goods and services—far in excess of those enjoyed by previous generations. Yet the bill for this spending has now come due, and many cannot afford the interest payments. Today’s young and middle-aged adults are the first in US history to face living standards significantly below those of their parents. One of the reasons for this is increased global competition for jobs. Companies naturally move production facilities to places with lower labor costs given the opportunity. With current communications technology, the same now holds true for office labor. Increasingly, well-educated workers in the developing world can often offer their services at a significant cost advantage over US based employees. This trend will likely continue as most US workers seem to be unwilling to follow their jobs abroad. The other main factor in the reduction of middle class living standards is a crippling debt load that remains stubbornly undiminished by the predominance of two income households. Austerity measures such as reduced consumption of consumer goods or moving to areas where cost of living is lower are not realistically available to everyone, nor are they desirable for the economy at large. After all, many people have already lost their homes and cut spending in every area they can imagine. Not everything is relative—cost of living does have some actual bright line minimums when it comes to housing, transportation, food and medical care. Meeting those minimums often means missed debt payments as well as reduced consumption. Both have a very negative effect on the economy as a whole. While interest on debt payments may have become a significant area of revenue for many businesses, let us not forget that consumption is the actual prime mover of our economic system and whatever is consumed must be produced at an ever lower cost. If economic growth and corresponding profits are to continue, any reduction in debt service payments must be counterbalanced by increases in productivity. US labor costs must somehow be brought down to become competitive with those of developing countries, regardless of relative cost of living…

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