Economic Warfare on the High-Speed Battleground

Most US politicians and economists don't get it.  The economic problems faced by the USA today are not just related to economic boom-bust cycles and poor management of economies (though these are real problems).  This is Economic Warfare being fought on a new battleground called the High-Speed Internet.

In this war, the USA employs a strategy it calls "free trade", which equates to unilateral economic disarmament.  We fear threats from our economic foes so we constantly surrender favorable trade deals, off-shoring jobs, capital flight, etc.

The guerilla tactics of our economic foes are unrecognized and their targets are rarely defended by the US.  They appear at our electronic gates and negotiate deals with the captains of business, while the generals lay additional regulations and taxes on us, like useless equipment and rules of engagement that leave us powerless to fight.

Old ideas are hard to change.  Liberal colleges still teach economic theories developed centuries ago.  Politicians still use policies based on teachings of Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, etc.  The fact is, the battleground has changed, the tactics have changed, and the US needs to wake up and fight with 21st century tactics before the battle is lost and our sovereignty is lost with it.

Throwing more money at the problem (whether tax cuts for the rich or stimulus checks for the poor) won’t work anymore.  The money will be tucked under a mattress or put to work overseas.  Fixing the economy will require policies that change the direction, not the speed of business.

The first order of business is to find anything the government is doing now to make things worse, and stop doing it.  All the health care policies developed in this century need to be reversed, to start with.  We need to stop using taxes and regulations to make employers act like social services.  It is way too easy to get unregulated, cheap foreign labor on the Internet.

The only reason the jobs situation hasn’t gotten even worse is that many small business people still care for their employees.  Community organizers and career politicians don’t have a clue about how businesses work and won’t find the answer from people who run mega-cap corporations that routinely send US jobs overseas.

Small businesses won’t last in a weak economy, when they are competing against multi-nationals and cheap foreign labor.  They will be acquired or put out of business.  This trend will not only continue but accelerate if it is not addressed.

Changing the direction will require time and pain, but it’s better to start now before we go deeper in debt and further into the mud.  Probably the first step will be early 2012 when we can start to get fresh blood in the primary process.  The primary elections are our best chance to make a change in leadership; both parties need people who at least recognize the new economic battle we face.