Productive capacity is the issue.
Being mired in a supply chain calamity is the common denominator: slow imports, scarcity on store shelves, lack of goods, and rising prices are reducing the United States to a banana republic. Not a new issue but one that has been festering for decades. If we don’t change course and go back to what made us great – making things – America as we know it will not survive.
We are at a critical point and at its core --- a crisis of scarcity in production, most acutely felt in the goods that we need the most. Whether it be personal household goods, protective equipment, pharmaceuticals or semiconductors, and 15,101 other categories, COVID-19 has exposed a hard truth: The United States – the richest country in the world – cannot produce an adequate supply of the critical goods it needs.
Productive capacity is the issue.
We gave it away 30-years ago.
By building a global economic system that prioritized the free flow of capital over the wages of American workers, and the free flow of goods over the resilience of our country’s supply chain, we gave away the underlying factor that made the United States the envy of the world. In the process, 745 billionaires were made in the United States compared to 66 in 1990, according to our G-101 algorithm. This fact was confirmed with secondary analysis by the Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies.
When you dig deeper, the current population of the United States of approximately 370,500,000, of which 210,000,000 or 44% are considered low income, the picture is not the truth. However, by removing individual subsidies, payments, and benefits from federal and state agencies, the 210 million people living at or below the poverty level of $26,500 (2021 federal poverty guideline for a family or household of 4 persons) these people are below the current poverty level. Compared to 1990 calculations, only 19% of the population fell into the equivalent categories.
How did this happen?
The failure of the nation’s productive capacity is the primary culprit and why responsible change is required.
