Our Changing Economic Times

The Nation magazine wrote that during the third presidential debate the moderator Chris Wallace injected some of his own ideas about economic issues and that they were wrong-headed. I think I've written about this several years ago, but it bears repeating. The times, they are a changin'.

We aren't living in the 1970s when oil was our primary foreign trade interest (large though it was) and we aren't living in the 1980s or '90s when women coming into the workforce was huge and microcomputers were becoming familiar (and then ubiquitous) and globalization of trade with offshoring of jobs was becoming huge. We aren't living in the 2000s when almost all our problems stagnated and nothing got done.

Many of our problems are known, but not solved. We still have a problem with carbon-based fuels and we are transitioning to other energy sources. That needs to continue and hopefully scientists will develop newer better tools for that. Just today, I read an article about potential investments into international electric super-grids could become very important for transporting 'clean green' energy to far away places. These are good developments to deal with issues going all the way back to the beginning of the 20th century when oil was discovered in America. We have become so familiar with microcomputers and they are a huge part of our economy, but we haven't yet gotten them into the hands of everyone. Combine the need for that with the need for universal access to high-speed broadband Internet and there is still room for billions of dollars to be made by somebody. Even in the area of financial transactions the recently developed blockchain software needs to be fully developed and put to good use. We need to take advantage of our technologies.

On the other hand, there are problems which haven't been addressed sufficiently: immigration, the wealth gap, workers below the poverty line, offshoring of investment wealth, a tax system which just doesn't work, a continued need to improve our educational system while at the same time making it more affordable and widely available, continued improvement of our new ACA healthcare system (Obamacare). There is a lot to be done and I've only touched some of the more discussed issues.

The times are changing and we have to recognize that change, not continue to live in a fantasy past which was in fact never better than today.