It's sad, but true.  America is not the country it used to be.  Even as the top 30 best cities list came out the other day on MSN, few of the American cities, I think only two, made the list at all.  What seems to be the trouble?

 

People blame the ecomony, but that's only the symptom.  The real cause stems from the loss of a real substantial industrial base.  Now that most of our manufacturing has been outsourced overseas, mostly to China, the basis of a the great industrial nation America was from 1900 to 1970 is now gone.  Without it America has become a beggar nation of huge debt and joblessness. 

 

With jobs scarce, the great consumer life America always enjoyed is gone.  Buying power is gone.  Stores are dimishing.  Cities are becoming delapidated, with entire shopping centers vacant.  Large numbers of retail store pads are available for rent, but few entrepreneurs are willing or able to take advantage of them, for one, and they distrust the economy to spring back and support retail in the near future, for two, and bank loans are almost extinct, for three.  The small businessman is a dying breed in America.  Sad.

 

Amazingly, real estate prices are just as high as ever.  Why?  Owners don't want to relinquish their equity in their investment, hoping real estate value will be maintained. 

 

Michael Moore of the George Bush/911 movie fame is still at it with his new movie, called Capitalism:  A Love Affair.  He's talking about how the rich love their money more than anything to the point of destroying the very essence of capitalism as it was designed.  He claims capitalism is dead and socialism is the order of the day in America, touting Obama's attempts to bring back the economy as a push toward socialism, the new savior of the American society.  We'll see.

 

Ted