The end of arrogance?

Fascinating article from Germany, it’s a long read, but the outlook echoes what’s happening on the street.

The banking crisis is upending American dominance of the financial markets and world politics. The industrialized countries are sliding into recession, the era of turbo-capitalism is coming to an end and US military might is ebbing.

We’re drifting towards an era where America doesn’t matter anymore.

Unstated in the article is the fundamental problem with the American economy:

Sprawl

We’ve been relying on suburban construction to fuel the economy. It gives lots of people something to do, that’s for sure. But in the long run, it’s not a sustainable way to live, and it’s even less sustainable as an economic driver.

The idea that housing powers the economy is fundamentally stupid. More housing is only needed if we have more people than homes.

WE DON’T.

The Census Bureau reports that we have 18 MILLION vacant homes in the market right now. This is not the same as foreclosure homes, many of which are still occupied. This is housing that is sitting EMPTY for lack of people to live in it. And everyone is trying to get homebuilding back up again for the sake of the economy…

We need to be building products with real value, like WIND TURBINES and HIGH SPEED RAIL. At a national political level the only thing we should be focused on building is INFRASTRUCTURE, because that literally lays the foundation for private enterprise to thrive.

Quit building out. We need to fill in the vast numbers of vacant properties that exist across our nation, repair and reinvest in our cities and towns, and start finding new ways to get more done with less resource use. THAT is efficiency, THAT is what drives business forward.

Why should the fundamental standard practices of our government be anything less than the fundamental standard practices of every business on the planet?