We like to pat ourselves on the back when we talk about the pre-eminence of American economic might. This article may cause you to question your assumptions about the pillars of our economic system. A quote to get you interested:

American growth has been largely driven by consumer spending creating ferocious and unsustainable debts at home and abroad…

Ask yourself – how much credit card debt are you carrying?

I don’t consider myself sufficiently knowledgable about economics to say whether the commentator is right. I did find his point of view thought provoking though, and I am troubled by how souless our ruthlessly capitalist system has become. What’s worst about it is that we’ve (the general population) been effectively co-opted by the industrialists. We all own stock now and our retirement funds rely on the system continuing to wring ever greater returns. Our parents didn’t face such conflicts of interest.

The irony is that according to the article, the system’s ability to wring ever greater returns relies on all of us digging ourselves deeper and deeper into debt. So I’ll be spending my pension checks on debt service I guess 😉