Enough Wealth

524,000 Jobs Lost in December; The Economy Is in a Depression

I hope that the US economy recovers fairly soon - a prolonged string of recessions and weak growth like Japan experienced in the past couple of decades would be disasterous for the US and debilitating for the global economy. If the US indeed enters a depression rather than a severe recession, it would be extremenly dangerous. I've seen some opinions that the Great Depression was only ended by the stimulus effect of WWII. I'd hate to have to rely on WWIII to get the US out of a depression!

On the other hand, I can't really feel too concerned if US real wages and living standards decline as a result of Chinese wages and living standards rising at the expense of the US. After all, there is a huge cap in living standards around the world, and although it would be nice if the rest of the world's population enjoyed rapid increases in living standards while the US continued to maintain or improve, it's more likely in a world of limited resources and global pollution problems for equality to be achieved by US (and other developed countries) standard of living declining while the developing and emerging economies enjoy somewhat improved standards.