I read this article from The Conservative Papers entitled, Changes are Coming”. It mainly was about the changes that technology and innovation that may change things as we now know them or the total elimination of them, such as post offices, newspapers and books, and television. But, what was more of interest to me was the link at bottom entitled 19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind.

The article starts off stating, “The United States is rapidly becoming the very first “post-industrial” nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing.” It goes on to state and highlight that basically the America that once led the world in the “Industrial Revolution” with unrestrained imagination, innovation, and capitalization leading to such hallmarks, such as the automobile, airplane, the personal computer, the television, and micro-wave dinners, now is the champion in producing waste. And I like to add debt.

Just a couple of stunning points of the 19 that he mentioned was, 1) Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade. At same time, Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost; 2) In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent; 3) Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975. 4) The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001 alone. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation; and 5) Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

Couple that article with the CNN-US article of 2009 where it reported that, the National Center for Education Statistics that compares 15-year-old U.S. students with students from other countries in the Organization for Economic Development…It found the U.S. students placed below average in math and science. In math, U.S. high schoolers were in the bottom quarter of the countries that participated, trailing countries including Finland, China and Estonia…According to the report, the U.S. math scores were not measurably different in 2006 from the previous scores in 2003. But while other countries have improved, the United States has remained stagnant…In science, the United States falls behind countries such as Canada, Japan and the Czech Republic…The eighth-graders’ scores remain about the same compared to 1995. Broadresidency.org reports that by the end of 8th grade, U.S. students are two years behind in the math being studied by peers in other countries and that seventy percent of 8th graders can’t read at their grade level, and most will never catch up. One could begin to get a not so rosy picture of the American Dream of the future

What is most astounding to me is that none of these issues were addressed in the slightest in the past two years of the Democratic political fronted blitzkrieg. If it was, it was to only make our economic dissension quicker. What we have witnessed over the past 18-20 years is the ascension of a extreme Progressive movement, that is of no particular political persuasion, fundamentally alter this once economically and socially dominant nation into one where the average citizen can’t do math without the aid of a computer and knows more about Britney Spears than Barack Obama - the occupant of the of the president of the United States. America once led the world in citizens’ aged 25-35 y/o with an Associate Degree or higher. Now we rank 12th amongst industrialized nations - and slipping fast. The question that I have always asked, How can an industrialized super-power nation remain influential with 70% of its economy based on services and consumption, rather than manufacturing and production? The Answer is, It can not! But the answer is not to turn everything over to the government to “create” wealth and jobs. Nor is it possible for a people who are products of a sub-par educational system to be able to seek the appropriate solutions to their problems and lead the world - because it is like asking a pear tree to produce squash.

History has already shown us the answers. Alexander Hamilton declared that “Not only the wealth, but the independence and security of a country appear to be materially connected with prosperity of manufacturers. Every nation…ought to endeavor to posses within itself all the essentials of a national supply. These comprise the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing and defense.” In the 1960’s the U.S exported approx. $3.5 billion above what it imported. Today, the U.S export imbalance is more than $374 billion - mostly due to U.S - Communist China relations. Glenn Beck, in his book “Broke”, referred to British scholar C.E.M Joad, a student of empire collapses, such as Rome, stating that all former empire’s implosion had three main reoccurring issues: decadence, weariness, and irresponsibility. And historian C. Northcote Parkinson added an over centralized government, heavy taxation, and bureaucracy run amuck. I contend that with regards to America, it all boils down to the loss of the love of freedom and individual responsibility. We have loss the love for being independent and solely responsible for our own successes and failures. What is happening to America today is not new, we are a nearly mirroring of the errors of the Romanian Empire.  It is just the speed at which America is imploding and the apathetic nature amongst the people that it is occurring that is astounding.  It is comparative to cows that have become resided to the fact that they are to become dinner.

The government is only a reflection of the people’s true nature. The citizens of the United States have the very government that they truly desire. They wanted someone to “Believe” in. So they elected someone who they asked little more in than just to say that he would seek to do everything for them, rather than inspiring them doing for themselves. America has become a nation awash with people who believe that everyone deserves “success”.  That there is someone else who will take care of us - be responsible for us.  That we are “entitled” to be great.  No longer are we a nation of people aspiring to be exceptional, but just to get by, or get over. We no longer seek to compete to win, but to just be in the race. We have more people looking to become a nurse or a beautician than a carpenter or engineer, more people seeking to the next “American Idol” , than American leader.  The words fun, convenient, and easy have become catch words for advertisers and a mindset for too many Americans.  We confuse having credit with real wealth. We have become a nation with a dysfunctional moral compass that is more likely to seek punishment for a referee who makes a bad call in a game than a politician who lies to us - repeatedly. So, the government mirrors our dysfunctional state.

If this nation is to continue as a free and prosperous nation for our children, and their children, then it is up to each and every last one of us to demand greater of ourselves and then greater of those entrusted to represent our nation. America is at its core is still the one nation with abundant natural resources and where people have unalienable rights to dream and, and with hard work and self-determination, see their dreams come true. But we can not see those possibilities while we surrender everything that makes us Americans, via laziness, apathy, and or ignorance, to countries such as Communist China, Russia, and India and not wake up to a nightmare. It is up to us to create our tomorrow.