TURNING POINT FOR AMERICA AND THE WEST = CORRUPTION AND DECLINE

12 killer apps that will crash GDP below 1% by 2100

Commentary: How capitalism is mutating into a self-destruct virus

Fall of c”R”apitalism = 12 “killer apps” = 6 from “principles of prosperity” by Niall Ferguson = 6 killer apps transformed Adam Smith’s theories into reality, ignited the Industrial Revolution, created a new class of superrich capitalists and launched the great American Dream for all of us. = Ferguson’s 6 “killer-apps” explain capitalism’s rise to power = West’s six-part lock on global power for centuries from 1500 to 1970 = Late 1970s the average American was more than 20 times richer than the Chinese

Early 20th century = 12 Western empires = controlled 58% of world’s land surface + 74% of the global economy

After WWII = TURNING POINT = Prosperity killer apps mutated into a narcissistic, self-destructive mutant capitalism, undermining the American Dream.

“The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism.” by Jack Bogle = Saboteur found a voice in the extreme ideology of conservatives = Ayn Rand and free-market capitalists like Big Oil, Big Pharma, defense contractors and corporate shareholders.

6 NEW KILLER APPS Since TURNING POINT = self-destructing American capitalism degrades future economic growth = will strangle the economy in next generation = 1% GDP Growth or less = catastrophic decline will destroy capitalism = restructure the American economy

“Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?” by Robert Gordon in National Bureau of Economic Research = Economist Robert J. Gordon’s challenging NBER paper “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?”

FACTS:

O.75% Growth for Bottom 99% from 1993 to 2008

52.0% GAINS by Top 1% = Inequality is accelerating = the MONOPOLISTIC superrich get richer and Middle Class capitalism = DESTROYED

$100 TRILLION = China’s economy SOON = Ferguson warns

Ferguson warns = MAIN “insidious cause” of WEST’s decline = HUBRIS+ARROGANCE = America its own worst enemy undermining the very capitalism that made us leaders

# 1 App = Scientific Revolution = “all the major 17th-century breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology happened in Western Europe.” Today we are FAR BEHIND in “Mathematical literacy” and Science Literacy

# 2 App = Revolution in medicine = “19th- and 20th-century breakthroughs in health care were made” by the West in “germ theory, antibiotics and anesthesia.”

Today = America SPENDS 2 to 3 TIMES what Japan or China spends on health care but both beat us with huge increases in life expectancy the last generation.

# 3 App = Democracy and ‘rule of law’ = “an optimal system of social and political order emerged in the English-speaking world.”

Today = America’s = “50th for public trust in the ethics of politicians, 42nd for various forms of bribery,” etc.

# 4 App = Competition: domestic and worldwide = America’s advantage is gone = “steepest declines among developed economies.” = “extraordinary social polarization” + inequality + NEW “superrich elite…dangerously divorced from the rest of society” = killing America’s edge.

# 5 App = Global consumer economy = “A supply of productivity-enhancing technologies and a demand for more, better and cheaper goods”

Today = 26 of the 30 world’s biggest shopping malls are in emerging markets

# 6 App = America’s work ethic = West worked hard and SAVED HARD!

Today = Asia Works HARD bad SAVES HARD! = We “know which students really drive themselves: the Asians and Asian-Americans.”

Solution = “Delete the viruses that have crept into our system.” = “the anticompetitive quasi monopolies that blight everything from banking to public education + the lobbyists who subvert the rule of law for the sake of the special interests they represent + our overleveraged BIG BANKER FRAUD = ExxonMobil? Big Pharma? Koch brothers? Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz and a do-nothing GOP guided by Ayn Rand extreme “mutant capitalism”

America = At war with itself, Adam Smith and the America Dream versus a self-destructive rigid conservative ideology. = The inevitable ending = a deadly catastrophic event will wake up America’s myopic, self-centered, superrich, our clueless politicians, lobbyists, corporate insiders. = “Civilizations don’t rise, fall, and then gently decline…more like an exponentially steepening slope…suddenly drops off a cliff.” = you’re fine until you’re not fine = a terrifying death spiral”

Gordon’s 6 New “killer apps” reducing US GDP growth to 0.2% in 2100 = US growth rate before the Industrial Revolution (1750).

# 7 App = Out-of-control demographics: “As more baby boomers retire, the number of hours worked per person declines, and growth in GDP per capita” drops 1.6%.

# 8 App = Lagging educational achievements: “US lag in reading, math and science” drops GDP by 1.4%

# 9 App = Widening inequality gap drops GDP by 0.9%

# 10 App = Globalization, automation of more skilled jobs in the US shifting to low-wage countries drops GDP by 0.7%

# 11 App = Carbon tax could drop GDP 0.5%

# 12 App = Excess personal and GOV debt drops GDP 0.2%

Ferguson’s six killer apps capture the exciting rise of Adam Smith’s pure capitalism, the great American Dream, and freedoms that made us the greatest global power in history.

MUTATED capitalism + Gordon’s six new killer apps KILLS CAPITALIST DREAM with ANY RAND c”R”capitalism of the Conservatives CONVERT a win-win game into a loser’s game for everyone = another Shakespearian tragedy = Blind leaders like King Lear, trapped in their narrow ideological egos, like children, unwilling, unable to act, until it’s too late.