Hehe, you're missing the point. It's simple labor & currency arbitrage. They will work for less in your eyes, but in reality they are getting a better living than the American co-part. The higher ups in the US corporates do not care about the skill-sets, they look at hypothetical numbers. If value & quality actually mattered, most of the outsourced jobs would have never been lost in the USA. I have watched the scam part of outsourcing take place 2 times, as long as it looks good on paper, the higher up execs get their bonus and that's it. Of course, some outsourcing makes perfect sense, I have experience with the good part of it too, but IMO, most of it is pure bullsh*t. If it was not, I would not have problems with some monkey customer rep in India, trying to explain to him what an ATM card is. I hear your idealistic approach but you should take a deeper look at the US consumer based economy. The consumers are the ones recently just thrown out on their ass without a job. How can the growth of USA economy keep going when we are our own top consumer? The growing consumer debt is largely due to the lack of wage growth & jobs. These same companies that are outsourcing jobs, report earnings in US$, the same currency they are helping devalue. Maybe you think this does not affect you much since you're an independent trader. Well it depends on where you live, what you trade and how you store your assets. Globalization isn't necessarily to your benefit.
"I think that the US debt as a percent of GDP is less than 3%. Same as person making $100,000 owing $3,000 on credit card. Most of you flat earth types don't understand just how large US actually is. China will have same problem as Japan did. These countries are too homogenous and do not adapt well to changing economical situations and conditions." steve, try 60-70% GDP! man you are way off If China is anything like Japan they will pass the US soon in total GDP.
SteveD,the interest that the US paid on its debt in the year 2004 was about $350 billion,thats a lot of money,it should have been used elsewhere. politicians in this country have found a new way for the US to prosper - the "debtonomics",sadly the FED plays along. --- in my opinion in 2-3 years the shit will hit the fan-either economic collaps like Argentina or they will start a gradual devaluation of the greenback and all the bad stuff that comes with it
Ok I wasnt clear at all but in response to your ideal of "entrepeneurship" you should recognize that the target consumer market is USA. USA is the consumer nation of the world, the problem is that this country's consumers are losing wage growth & jobs, hence losing their buying power. Of course the rising debt, consumer, corporate & government has kept the consumption going. This has been documented on the interent on this website & in the media several times. Of course if you believe the government numbers of 5% unemployment & low inflation, then that's another story and there is no point of discussing the issue.
This could be the most idiotic statement of this entire thread. The one common attribute among every successful person I know, and I know many, is a constant desire to learn and to improve. This want for improvement is driven by the desire to always be the best at what they do, coupled with an almost unreasonable nervous fear of being left behind in a world that is rapidly changing.
Of cource everyone learns new things: however there is a difference between letting others churn your activities, making you constantly learn things of dubious value, and concentrating on the strategies and items that have actual utility. People that have already obtained the core knowledge in a discipline or range of diciplines learn to filter out the noise. Thus in a sense they dont need to be overtly worried about "constantly refining their skills." You do this every day in the course of your work: it doesn't need to be called out or even discussed. ....And I know many many successful people as well and the one characteristic they all have is this ability to ignore the noise and concentrate on the useful advances/information.
SteveD i bet you are one of the more successful people in this threat, or at least you sleep better at night about debt as % of GDP i don't know exactly the latest numbers, but it sure as hell ain't close to the % of that little quiet prosperous country of Belgium and most probably also lower than the % of GDP for EU as a whole. ps. and definitely also lower than Japan's pps. and don't forget the debt from last years is on the books for very low interest rates, VERY low.
To clear any ambiguity.... Public debt rankings Rank-Country-Public debt(% of GDP)-Date of Information 1 Malawi 228.30 2004 est. 2 Lebanon 177.90 2004 est. 3 Japan 164.30 2004 est. 4 Jamaica 146.10 2004 est. 5 Zambia 127.50 2004 est. 6 Seychelles 122.80 2004 est. 7 Argentina 118.00 June 2004 est. 8 Greece 112.00 2004 est. 9 Italy 105.60 2004 est. 10 Israel 104.50 2004 est. 11 Sri Lanka 104.30 2004 est. 12 Egypt 102.70 2004 est. 13 Singapore 102.50 2004 est. 14 Belgium 96.20 2004 est. 15 Jordan 85.80 2004 est. 16 Serbia and Montenegro 80.00 2004 est. 17 Sudan 79.70 2004 est. 18 Saudi Arabia 75.00 2004 est. 19 Cyprus 74.90 2004 est. 20 Cote d'Ivoire 74.80 2004 est. 21 Kenya 74.30 2004 est. 22 Turkey 74.30 2004 est. 23 Philippines 74.20 September 2004 est. 24 Honduras 74.10 2004 est. 25 Uganda 73.90 2004 est. 26 Pakistan 71.40 2004 est. 27 Morocco 70.20 2004 est. 28 Nicaragua 69.50 2004 est. 29 Panama 69.20 2004 est. 30 Cameroon 69.10 2004 est. 31 France 67.70 2004 est. 32 Vietnam 65.90 2004 est. 33 Germany 65.80 2004 est. 34 United States 65.00 2004 est. 35 Austria 64.20 2004 est. 36 Bahrain 63.80 2004 est. 37 Moldova 63.40 2004 est. 38 Portugal 61.50 2004 est. 39 Dominican Republic 61.10 2004 est. 40 India 59.70 2004 est. 41 Papua New Guinea 59.30 2004 est. 42 Tunisia 59.20 2004 est. 43 Hungary 58.30 2004 est. 44 Costa Rica 58.00 2004 est. 45 Switzerland 57.20 2004 est. 46 Indonesia 56.20 2004 est. 47 Netherlands 55.80 2004 est. 48 Senegal 55.20 2004 est. 49 Trinidad and Tobago 54.40 2004 est. 50 Spain 53.20 2004 est. 51 Zimbabwe 52.30 2004 est. 52 Brazil 52.00 2004 est. 53 Colombia 51.80 2004 est. 54 Sweden 51.60 2004 est. 55 Poland 49.90 2004 est. 56 Ecuador 49.20 2004 est. 57 Thailand 47.60 November 2004 est. 58 Finland 46.80 2004 est. 59 Slovakia 46.60 2004 est. 60 Yemen 46.40 2004 est. 61 South Africa 45.90 2004 est. 62 Malaysia 45.40 2004 est. 63 Peru 44.10 2004 est. 64 Venezuela 43.10 2004 est. 65 Bangladesh 43.00 2004 est. 66 Denmark 42.50 2004 est. 67 Bulgaria 41.90 2004 est. 68 El Salvador 41.70 2004 est. 69 Croatia 41.70 2004 est. 70 Uzbekistan 41.50 2004 est. 71 United Kingdom 39.60 2004 est. 72 Paraguay 39.20 2004 est. 73 Namibia 38.50 2004 est. 74 Algeria 37.40 2004 est. 75 Iceland 35.90 2004 est. 76 Czech Republic 33.50 2004 est. 77 Norway 33.10 2004 est. 78 Taiwan 32.40 2004 est. 79 Guatemala 32.00 2004 est. 80 Syria 32.00 2004 est. 81 Slovenia 31.50 2004 est. 82 China 31.40 2004 est. 83 Ireland 31.20 2004 est. 84 Kuwait 29.60 2004 est. 85 Gabon 29.30 2004 est. 86 Mauritius 29.20 2004 est. 87 Russia 28.20 2004 est. 88 Iran 27.00 2004 est. 89 Lithuania 25.20 2004 est. 90 Ukraine 24.70 2004 est. 91 Romania 23.60 2004 est. 92 Mexico 23.50 2004 est. 93 New Zealand 22.10 2004 est. 94 Korea, South 21.30 2004 est. 95 Macedonia 20.00 2004 est. 96 Nigeria 20.00 2004 est. 97 Azerbaijan 18.90 2004 est. 98 United Arab Emirates 17.60 2004 est. 99 Australia 17.40 2004 est. 100 Kazakhstan 13.70 2004 est. 101 Chile 12.80 2004 est. 102 Latvia 11.80 2004 est. 103 Oman 10.30 2004 est. 104 Libya 8.80 2004 est. 105 Botswana 8.60 2004 est. 106 Estonia 5.40 2004 est. 107 Tanzania 5.00 2004 est. 108 Hong Kong 2.10 2004 est.