THE TIDES OF TIME - HOW THE U.S. EXPORTED ITS GREATEST ASSET AT NO PROFIT.
- By Douglas Castle, as originally published in THE GLOBAL FUTURIST on 26 August 2009, and re-posted on 27 August 2009. This article may be reproduced without permission, but it must be printed in its totality with full attribution to its author, and with a hyperlinks to http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com and to http://www.TheNationalNetworker.com .
Dear Friends:
The title of this article is every bit as prophetic (sadly) as it is ominous. Just as the moon exerts its pull on the tides, just as unstoppered molecules tend to dissipate, and just as a pendulum swings, there are forces of Human Nature which are predictable in their tendency to recur. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as "periodicity" has a great deal of empirical evidence (i.e., all of recorded history) to support it. This article is not just about the United States and it is not written by a U.S. citizen for his fellow citizens. It is written as an admonition to the people of every emerging nation, as well.
The United States has experienced a cultural shift during the last forty years whereby entrepreneurship, innovation and bravery have been replaced with corporate ladder-climbing, imitation and politically correct and impotent conformity. Without pioneering, without the lust for adventure, without a need to express one's uniqueness and personal power by striving to change something in the world, we are left with stagnation, a sense of entitlement, atrophied survival skills and an obsession with security. As a people we have given up our ambitions, our power, our spirit, our initiative and the notion of added value.
We had become brokers, traders, administrators and paper (or button) pushers, where we used to be explorers, scientists, engineers, builders, and hard-knock entrepreneurs. When we stopped exercising our minds and bodies, we started down the path to senescence as a country and as a culture. Through outsourcing, through excessive and unchecked greed, through a loss of shame and pride as behavioral parameters and foci, we have become the World's greatest exporter of energy. We didn't export fossil fuels (we imported them as we still do, we whined about price manipulation, and then we topped off our gas tanks)...no, we had become the world's greatest exporters of the energy of initiative. And we exported it for free -- we thought we were investing. We didn't understand that we were actually divesting. as if initiative and self-sufficiency were a burden to be given away to others to carry for us.
People in the emerging nations, in large part, have been importing our recipe for success for years, a recipe which we have been exporting, at no long-lasting profit, for decades. We gave the competition all of our tools, and taught them how to use them in exchange for what we thought was cheap labor, or for quick profit turnover. The blowback is burying the United States. We traded long-term growth and greatness for bigger, faster profit margins, and in the process, sold our nation's future at a deep discount. A colleague of mine used to say that Americans are mortgaging their childrens' future -- I would say, on reflection, that we have actually factored our receivables at an incredible discount in order to have some quick cash. And now, we do not generate any more receivables to factor. We are a chronic debtor. We are an habitual borrower. We borrow to buy time, hoping that we'll be able to refinance before the maturity date.
The emerging nations (in Asia, parts of Africa, some Latin American countries, parts of the Pacific Rim) have learned from us. They have imported our ambitions and our dreams. They provide goods and services and sell them at a profit. They are frugal, and they do not invest frivolously. They invest in production and profitability. They are not so obsessed with looking successful as they are with being successful. They do not confuse form with substance. They are the new young capitalists.
Ironically, until very recently we considered these people to be primitive. We sought to make greater profits at their expense. But while we were playing, they were working. While we were preaching, they were practicing. While we farmed, they hunted.We became dependent upon our servants. It is so much like a science fiction novel. These one-time servants are now awakening and realizing their tremendous advantage. And with that advantage comes great opportunity.
Look at these new young capitalists to become major purchasers of significant investments (both debt and large-block equity) in U.S. businesses over the next three to five years. And many of them will not be passive purchasers -- they have learned far too well what that leads to by watching our corporate excesses in the C-Suite. They will look for controlling interests and strategic positions.
These new young capitalists are living our past in their present. We exported the energy of initiative to the "Third World," and while we slept, they studied. Sadly, we have very little of this magic dust (or anything else, for that matter) left to export.
It is humiliating to have to pay so much to buy back what we gave away for free. We just didn't know the value of what we were giving away. I think the appropriate platitude is "One man's trash is another man's treasure."
And now we are writing checks drawn on an empty bank account to pay for the goods we gave away for pennies on the dollar at our own yard sale. Ironic? Indeed.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
Douglas Castle's blog can be found at http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com
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Labels: cycles, equilibrium, export assistance, Human Nature, periodicity, predictability, The Energy of Inititiative, waves, emerging nations, economic retrospective, export, import, slaves becoming masters, the surrender of power through laziness and dependency, lessons from history, behavioral psychology, blowback, outsourcing, long-range planning versus instant gratification, vigilance, selfishness as vice, minding the store, monitoring trends, articles by Douglas Castle, The National Networker Companies, GetGlobalEdge.com, Third-World becomes First-World, mature economies, Global Edge Technologies Group LLC, Speedlight Pro Kit USA, fossil fuels, miscalculation, asset valuation, risk of reliance,
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