What's Wrong With America's Economy?

I thought this week’s Economist essay was particularly accurate in assessing America’s current government leaders. 

What's Wrong With America's Economy?      Economist, Apr 28th 2011

http://www.economist.com/node/18620710?story_id=18620710

The Economist are liberals but they make key points about American voters and politicians.

·         We are right to be down on all politicians for lack of leadership and concerned about growing debt.

·         President Obama is particularly culpable for talking nonsense about the deficit – tax the rich is not a solution – and for refusing to tell us that taxes must rise and entitlements must fall.

·         We are wrong to be so pessimistic about our own economy which is still the greatest in the world and likely to stay that way longer than many predict.  The rise of the Chinese economy is nothing but good for us.

·         We and our leaders are wrong not to recognize, along with deficits and debt, the growing problem of entrenched joblessness.

Anemic or not, we are in the midst of yet another jobless recovery.  The lack of work among less-skilled men is having huge fiscal and social consequences.  Consider this eye-popping statement from the column:  America has more unemployed prime-age men than any other G7 economy.

·         25% of working age American men with no college degree are unemployed.

·         35% of male high-school dropouts are unemployed.

·         70% of black male high-school dropouts are not working.

Male unemployment among the unskilled leads to lower marriage rates, weakening family bonds, more violence and more dropouts.

We should be fixing our schools and otherwise be preparing the unskilled for employment. 

In addition, the war on drugs is a colossal failure that should be ended.

·         It was never any better an idea than Prohibition – we cannot legislate behavior.

·         It is ruining an ever growing number of nations and throwing them into chaos.

·         The “war” costs $40 billion a year with absolutely no results.

·         It generates massive violence across entire continents.

·         The money generated from the international criminal industry corrupts too many in every walk of American life and that industry only exists because of prohibitive laws.

·         We are passing up huge amounts of “sin tax” revenue that could be coming from a regulated industry.  This would be true even if we the addicted for free.

·         Worst of all, it locks up large numbers of young black men, which drastically diminishes their future employment prospects.

We have got to get our leaders to focus on the nation.