The Goose

I wrote the essence of this back in 2004 for Cartoon 510.

Most people see the snap shots on the news of our military in action and draw comfort that we have the most powerful military in the world. Yet that is not the source of American power, it is an attribute. The real power behind America is financial. Therefore, if America is to fall, it will have to stumble financially.

American financial power lies in its mass market. America has the largest mass market. America has used the granting of access to its market as leverage in the world. The free trade agreements represent conquest by other means. Globalization has been its umbrella for world government.

In more than the last half century suicide has been performed through government policies. The Government has actively killed the goose that laid the Golden Egg. This is the mass consumer market. The American mass market is based on a middle class with disposable income. The policies have evaporated the middle class and increased the economic disparity. The illusion of a mass middle class market was maintained by cheap ubiquitous consumer credit. The reality is that the government policies have invested 90% of the wealth in 10% of the population.

The last major middle class employer is the Federal Government. Even this bastion is under attack. Gone from the middle class economic compensation ranks are large industries that used to provide middle class employment; such as the auto, steel, and utility industries. They have all largely slipped to the lower wage and benefit ranks. Today, the largest private employer is Wal-Mart. Certainly no one would call Wal-Mart a middle class employer.

In destroying the mass market, you destroy America’s real power in the world. The lack of American market opportunity is resulting in American influence waning. American demands will increasingly fall on deaf ears. Even the hawks are now waking up to the realization of this real foundation of American power.

There is an old saying, “you don’t miss your water till the well is dry”.