I have to say, part of me is scared s**tless.

As an aspiring economics student and teacher, continue the good work.

But of course this is very hard. It must seem easier working to put Humpty Dumpty together again.

A point I have often returned to, and which my parents before me made: remember that the European hordes just flooded into this “new” land and simply took what they wanted, and dispossessed the peoples already here. It was a continuous war and nearly a genocide. The resources were abundant and relatively easy to acquire. Now, and more so in the future, what will we do when we can’t simply take what we want from relatively defenseless peoples? It strikes me that we have not yet paid the price for all that we took, especially in terms of the ease we became accustomed to, the corrosive effect that ease has had in inflating our sense of entitlement; the studied blind eye our country turned toward stewardship, and the decimation of the indigenous peoples who knew quite a bit about stewardship and could have taught us what we now need to know. Many loose threads of behavior will come home to roost — that is, will come around so that we’re on the receiving end of our own past behavior and its consequences. We must do better.

You say S & D will take care of the problem, but history tells a different story. And T. Boone doesn’t get it, “it” being the gov’t subsidies he wants for his schemes. They may be good schemes or not, but one does wonder why, if the economy is so efficient, that our most “efficient” sectors require such large subsidies.

The crux of the matter is to learn from the mistakes of others like the Brits, who frittered away their competitive advantage in production to none other than the US. Now the US is in danger of repeating history – unless we do something differently.

Currently, the developing nations have a huge advantage over the US, namely the masses of people who are willing to be more industrious than Americans, to work for far lower wages, and to risk dangerous working and living conditions. We must negate this advantage, or wither!

Supply and demand will take care of what we will produce, and who will consume our output. It did so after the Industrial Revolution and I expect it will do so again.

T. Boone Pickens gets it – do you?

You are earnest, you are concerned, you frame your concerns articulately, and you are refreshingly polite. I share your concerns. I like what I sense are your values and I would go out on a limb and guess that you are a responsible member of your community, a good neighbor and a reliable friend.

I particularly like your last paragraph. Yes, we need humility, we need to want to learn, we need to be listen while maintaining open minds. Accordingly, I entreat you to spend just a little more time at The Baseline Scenario. Reread and engage, but this time, instead of skimming, please consider who the folks at The Baseline Scenario are and what the nature of their subject matter is.

These are professional economists. They have spent decades studying the collective outcomes of everyday decisions made by individuals within large systems. You speak of “productivity” and “resources;” so do they. When they talk global inflation going from an annual rate of -1% to +.5% they are, in fact, describing a shift in “productivity” that would result in satisfying basic human needs for food and shelter for millions while providing surplus sufficient to fund sound regulatory policy for, amongst other things, the environment. Funding of wetlands enhancement projects, reforestation or watershed studies is seldom undertaken when the population is hungry or frightened. When they speak of a misallocation of “resources” into dangerous financial structures, they are talking about a disregard for what is really needed in the land. They seek the workable policy mechanisms for fulfilling real needs. Specifically, they mention health care, manufacturing, education, infrastructure, research and development and sound regulatory policy.

Somehow I feel you would approve of a circumstance where your job and home are secure, as well as those of your neighbor, where the environment is subject to sound regulatory policy, where education and health care are available to all, and where you would earn tax credits for alternative fuel choices such as adding a panel to your solar power array or purchasing an electric vehicle.

So, Citizenchallenge, you and the folks at The Baseline Scenario have a lot in common. You may not recognize buzz words with which you are familiar, but all your concerns are addressed. Read a little more, become accustomed to the significance behind the nomenklatura of economics, and you will see.

A society that bases its economy on 70% consumer spending is essentially transferring its wealth to countries that produce more than they consume.

Therefore, in coming out of this crises our goal should NOT be to return to the status priori. To thrive over the long run we MUST return to producing at least as much as we consume. How?

Workers in developing countries are sure to work for lower wages than Americans, and politicians cannot be relied upon to level the playing field.

There is only one way – in factories we must replace most human workers with machines – probably robots. Even the most industrious foreign workers can’t compete with the speed, accuracy, and shear 24 x 7 brute force of machines. No UAW, no pensions, no runaway medical costs.

If the US fails to perform such an economic transformation then we are destined to become the Britain of the 21st century – a quaint tourist destination with a second rate services sector. Oh, and you should start learning to speak and write Mandarin as soon as possible!