Why the United States will survive -- that is if the Founding Fathers have anything to do with our continuing history.

"Change our national and historic narrative and you change the very course of this nation, moving us away from what makes us a success as a people of this world to members of a larger world community without a primal and distinctive philosophy that provides for freedom, civil and orderly change, and financial success." This is where we are going with the words of this article.

GDP and Our Nation's Philosophy for Creating Wealth

Our national productivity is measured and reported in GDP quarterly reports. When we averaged the four quarterly reports for 2009 and 2010, we found that our productivity was 0% GDP for each of those two years. Understand that a "2% growth" report, for example, means the economy ("economy" = Gross Domestic Product, GDP or the measure of everything that makes this country money) grew 2% over the previous quarter, unless stated otherwise.

A couple of weeks ago, the Feds reported a 3rd Quarter growth of 2.5% over the 2nd Quarter of .08%. That report was reduced down to an even 2.0% and may wind up being closer to 1.5% before we know the whole story.

"2.5% GDP" is significant and here is why:

We are told (by the "experts" - in this report we will call them "sperts, to save time and publishing effort) that while the economy is producing income at 0.8% or 0.1% or 2.0%, it is not hiring to any measurable degree until the GDP quarterlies come in at 2.5% or higher, for an extended period of time -- two quarters or more.

The first reports for the 3rd Quarter were encouraging. 2.5 % means that we may be on the verge of a period of job growth. But, as of today's revision, that report is not so encouraging.

How do we compare to the World's economies? Or,

What makes this nation the greatest nation in this world?

There are less than 200 nations in our World. The United States produces 14.5 trillion dollars in goods and services each year. There is much reporting, of late, that the Chinese are about to overcome our economy. After all, it is the number two economy in the World, but its total GDP for 2010 was 5.9 trillion, nearly 1/3 of our total. Japan comes in at 5.5 trillion, Germany at 3.3, and the Russian Federation at 1.5 trillion. You can read the full report here.

We are the only nation in the world whose economy type (capitalism) is a structured aspect of governance, so much so that our "form of government" can be defined as a "representative capitalist democracy."

Anyone critical of "capitalism," is critical of our present form of governance, period. All the talk of "the Chinese are coming, the Chinese are coming" is nonsense. It is only the talk of the current crop of radicals running our country. That includes Pelosi, Reid, Barack and Michelle Obama, Schumer, Hillary (I think - maybe not), Van Jones, Elizabeth Warren, Al Sharpton, Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Patrick Leahy (D - Vermont) , Maxine Waters and all of the Congressional Black Caucus, Jesse Jackson, and many others. The point of their expressed "fears," is to create a climate for radical change that moves us from capitalism to pure socialism. That is what is going on at this time.

One final point: I have no idea what the actual numbers are, but we often hear that the United States has "3% of the World's population but owns 30% of the World's wealth" (again, approximate numbers). The inference is always this: the US is a gluttonous and selfish nation cheating the rest of the world out of what is "rightfully" theirs. But, the contrasting fact is simply that our very form of government accounts for the accumulation of wealth that is typical to our nation's history. That business about "American Exceptionalism?" It is written into our Founding Documents.

Change our national and historic narrative and you change the very course of this nation, moving us away from what makes us a success as a people of this world to members of a larger world community without a primal and distinctive philosophy that provides for freedom, civil and orderly change, and financial success. I am saying that all three of these considerations are the existential results of our particular historicity. . . . . . you can't have "one" without the others. The absolute genius of our Founding Fathers, blue collar intellectuals all, is displayed in their creation of a national construct that not only provided us with a path to freedom with perpetuity, but laid out principles for society change and national wealth.

By contrast and as relates to wealth, freedom and the individual pursuit of happiness, men like Karl Marx and Mao and Lenin and Castro and Hugo Chavez are all morons. Seriously. No nation practicing the philosophies of these men has ever been truly successful as relates wealth creation and freedom. If you have read Mein Kampf or Marx's thoughts on Dialectical Materialism, you will be able to appreciate c;aims for the abject silliness of the Left. There is no intellectual profundity in either of these publications and nothing even similar to the intellectual effort of our Founding Fathers as they debated and put into practice, the realities that have lead to the United States of America.

J Smithson

Blog Editor