When the U.S.S.R. collapsed and its former republics became independent states it was the advent of something formerly unthinkable. However the encroaching climate of choking social control by the Soviet party, the Kremlin and the KGB that preceded that nation's dissolution should have been an ominous harbinger of the inevitable demise of the U.S.S.R.
Some speculate that a similar climate of dissatisfaction is currently active in the United States and in the European Union. Such speculators theorize that the economic condition that has practically paralyzed the world economy has mobilized people and local governments into action to protect their immediate communities. This they say is the birth pains of a brave new post America future where the US is reduced to fractured State Republics and previously secretive societies move forward to dominate the world stage.
It is in preparation of these supposedly imminent events that Survivalist Prepper's prep, Evangelical Christian Preachers Preach and Ultra wealthy venture capitalist investors freeze assets. It is in the proclaimed shadow of this hoopla that average citizens worldwide have mobilized to civic demonstration, protest, disobedience and as in the Arab Spring even revolution. Needless to say people are worried.
But is all this fear warranted? Are we heading down a path that history has coursed? Will future historians mark this era as the post-apocalyptic era? Here is the most overlooked answer to the question nobody seems to be asking: What exactly is happening to the economy around the world? The world is experiencing a severe case of economic imbalance.
It is generally overlooked that the influx of the vast majority of Chinese farmers into city and factory work has readily and very effectively supplanted formerly well established and better paid workers elsewhere around the developed world. It is also generally overlooked that most customer service and clerical jobs that made up the bulk of jobs occupied by middleclass Americans can and are now done electronically by another enormous influx of well-trained people over the past twenty years.
India has a population of over 1.2 billion people. China likewise has a population of over 1.3 billion people. Together that is a workforce of over 2.5 billion people vying for manufacturing, office, service and other industry jobs previously occupied by Americans and Europeans which combined comprise roughly half the work force of India and China combined. And with the mechanization of agriculture in India and China it is a mathematical impossibility for America and Europe not to be severely destabilized economically. If you also consider that only 28% of Americans have college degrees it leaves a huge gap in the work force leaving far too many under qualified workers and far too many overly complex jobs.
This disparity is however not as evident to the emerging economies of India and China who have chosen instead to invest heavily in Europe and America. Apparently Asians do not see western economies as doomed but instead morphing or evolving. It is inevitable that with the emergence of the East economically that the West must move along with the times and create a new paradigm for manufacturing to set us as leaders in the emerging tech. fields of the 21st century. We are not only poised to be leaders but emerging economies are expecting as to lead the way. Chinese representatives during the Kyoto protocol insisted that longtime polluters, meaning US and Europe should pave the way in green technologies. But we must keep in mind that Asians are not sitting around idle. India and China will not wait for the US and Europe to create global green markets. They are already pushing forward in these areas and if we refuse to take the lead then they will be forced to cut their losses and dominate therein as well.
What Americans need is to understand where we need to stand to recover from this shake up. The Baby boom generation is retiring and the jobs that they held are no longer being filled. New generations of Americans need to train or retrain in the fields of math, science, technology and medicine. Politicians need to redirect their attentions from lobbyist's interests to national interests.
America and Europe are not doomed to repeat the fate of the U.S.S.R. We must remember that what happened then was a military coup. What America must do is repeat the great leaps of our historical past. Such as when a national public education was established or when we built thew transcontinental railroad or the public work projects that got us out of the great depression and modernized America or the dedication that started the space race. It is Education, Technology and Innovation that will chart the future of the US.