The Great Stagnation:

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Earlier today I posted up an article I found on one of my sites, this one related to the Green Economic growth going on mostly everywhere but here in the U.S., though here we are finally doing some things. I was going to leave it at that posting but low and behold I started streaming NPR and caught a related short interview with an author that wasn’t directly related to Green but was about what we once had as an economy here in the States, which gives me the title.  

For those who were born and grew up during or after World War II you know what we once had and once were envied for, think of the extremely cheap and poorly made products found on the store shelves back in your childhood days and as you grew into your workforce professions. Those expanding economic and middle class growth days filled our first half of life, the second half, if paying attention to what was happening to our folks or friends or relatives, we gave that all away to those who once produced the extremely cheap and poorly made.

This was that first article and what I quickly wrote in a lead in:

Not only are many joining the move in advancing, economically and technology, that which the U.S. once was the leader in up till some thirty years ago, the new developments in the needed technologies, tools, materials and other products will mostly be produced by others then the U.S., they’ve already started and are rapidly taking the lead. Environment is a main lead in the need for advancing but there are many other just as important benefits to be gained, as there always has been from world societies moving forward.

Global market for green building materials set to expand to us$406 billion by 2015

March 5, 2011 – A growing demand for green building material has been noted in the regional real estate industry. This is driven by the increasing stress on implementation of green building standards by local governments and civil authorities.

Concern about the impact the construction industry has on the local environment and a realization of the need for sustainable development has fuelled a drive to align the construction industry to green building standards. This perceptible shift in the construction industry is expected to be reflected at Hardware+Tools Middle East 2011 – the only dedicated trade event for the hardware, tools, machinery and construction material in the Middle East.

According to recent research, the global market for green building material is expected to be worth US$406 billion by 2015, driven largely by environmental consciousness, high energy costs, and the understanding that green buildings contribute to long-term benefits such as improved efficiency, cost savings and higher production. As costs of green building materials drop, they are becoming increasingly popular the world over.*

“The push to conform with global best practices in sustainable real estate development is gathering pace in the Middle East,” said Ahmed Pauwels, Chief Executive Officer of organiser Epoc Messe Frankfurt. “As construction majors look to decrease their carbon footprint and adopt environmentally-friendly building methods, the demand for green building material is quickly gathering pace,” he added. {continued}

I placed it in an open thread as well on kos and came back with a reply to the replies about the Green Economy here:

It was pushed down before, some thirty plus years ago I was involved in many solar installations, some you can still see on homes etc. who knows if they’re still hooked up, but the same that are leading the denying now, corporate interests, were the same pushing it out before, yet it slowly continued.

That was the start of our losing the once leadership we had and yes again envied for, shortly after we started losing trades, innovations from and experience in while sending all that to those who were the ones who did that envy as they tried to copy what we had.

The trouble now is the misuse of the ‘global warming’ meme to beat down the obvious advancements we used to do just to perfect the society a tad or more more!

You see this isn’t just about ‘global warming’ or better ‘climate change’, the reality, that’s the hopefully big and obvious results from, but there are not only many many more possible and propabal results in many area’s just think if we had kept on advancing on the earlier attempts for cleaner energy etc. and were doing so here, producing the products, perfecting those products and developing new, all these years. But we like to talk now and let others do.

We used to make and then perfect products and services. You should have seen the washing machine, no dryer, we had as kids. Look what we got now that were perfected here but mostly others now make. Or how about the early refrigirators, same as that I just wrote. How about those earlier black and white TV’s, same again, and on and on and on.

This is what was just on NPR this morning:

March 7, 2011 – Economist Tyler Cowen in his book “The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History,Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better”, argues that U.S. economic growth largely plateaued in the 1970s. He tells Renee Montagne the resources that fueled the country’s progress over the last 300 years are largely gone, and expectations need to be readjusted.

We no longer have many of the trades that we developed, which led to innovations and perfecting, after World War II, we shipped those mostly oversea’s and they now have the experiences to develop and perfect the needs of us human animals, just look around you, not much you own came directly from here and if so they probably are foreign owned companies on this soil.

Look as you drive by or are near new construction projects, how many American tradesmen and women do you see, I worked in those trades for over forty years, much of that work is now done by hard working, but cheaper labor cost, by the way as a construction tradesman my wages and benefits have stagnated the past some thirty years as have the labels of what we once were, no longer professionals but skilled labor, immigrants some coming here illegally. Your homes, your stores, your office buildings, we gave away and are still doing so the trades, the years of experience, the jobs, to others and that isn’t only happening in construction but across the board right here on this soil, they now have and are developing the experiences and do the work we need done.

Private capital, i.e. reaganomics, was and is a con and is not being invested here. If we don’t force that issue, best way would be taxation with more public investment, we keep taking this country down to levels not seen before as others lead and pass us by.

The private sector is destroying this country and everything it once was or could have been!