THE ROAD AHEAD?

About 30 years ago, my wife and I began traveling to other countries. We saw people living in very poor conditions: one-room homes made of sticks and sheet metal, dirt floors, no running water, no sanitary facilities, and most people had inadequate food for their family.  I said to my wife " The greatest challenge the US will encounter in the years ahead is how can we raise the standard of living of the people around the world without decreasing our standard of living?  If we don't raise their standard of living, we are going to be constantly engaged in economic conflict or armed conflict."

Unfortunately, we have not been able to significantly raise the worldwide standard of living for many people and we are now seeing the results of our failure to do so:

1.    An increase in illegal immigration to the US;

2.    Increased economic competition from China, India, Indonesia, Europe, and other countries;

3.    Armed conflict in Afghanistan and "dicey" relationships with Iran and North Korea; and

4.    A significant increase in terrorist activities around the world.

I wonder what conditions will be like 30 years from now for my children and grandchildren?

I'm not sure that politicians, the public, or anyone has the solution as to how to increase worldwide prosperity.

I am not a socialist.  I  am a firm believer in the capitalist system. But, it seems to me that it is inevitable that the more prosperous nations (and the US in particular) will have to reduce the standard of living for their citizens if the standard of living for citizens of other countries is to improve.

If my hypothesis is correct that the standard of living for the citizens of the prosperous nations must decline, those nations have a tremendous communications problem confronting them. How do they convince their citizens to sacrifice for the greater good?

How will we:

1.    Convince US workers and the workers in the developed countries that they must accept lower wages to match those of workers with comparable skills and knowledge in China, India, Mexico, Brazil, etc?

2.    Convince our citizens to reduce their consumption of the world's limited resources (oil, food, etc) so that people in other nations can increase their consumption?

3.    Convince the citizens of the "third world" countries that they have to engage in population control if they hope to feed their citizens?

It will be interesting to see what the road ahead is like.