Q1 Corrected to 2.9% GDP Decline

Welcome to Japan: More on The Q1 GDP Report | Power Line:

I've been noting the acceleration of economic problems -- vying with FICA bankruptcy and personal aging for the most predictable of events.

The linked article talks of the US moving into a Japanese style economic funk, which I generally agree with, but we are a lot bigger economy -- when the big guy gets sick, it tends to be worse! Just as when things are good, it is "more good" in a big business, economy, city, etc, the inverse is ALSO true.

I disagree with the positive implications for Republicans politically. Our nation is over that 50% relative dependency mark now (which Romney was so thoroughly castigated for claiming to still have a 3% margin). The party of dependency is the Democrat party. When people get scared, they are going to tend to vote Democrat which going to exacerbate the problem. That is natural, it is part of why nations decline when they abandon the principles that made them great -- self reliance, thrift, competitiveness, excellence, etc, and switch over to "rights, safety, leveling, regulation".

The US economy resembles nothing more than an ailing back patient that has been over medicated, possibly operated on and is in an accelerating slide, accelerated by many of the "cures" that were supposed to be "the fix".

We need to slow government spending, TAKE SOME PAIN, remove some taxation so that those that can accelerate the economy SEE SOME GAIN ... but this time start the SLOW ARDUOUS PROCESS of realizing that there is no such thing as "economic safety", and that HARD WORK needs to be encouraged with INCENTIVES, while sloth needs to be STRONGLY discouraged with DISincentives.

BTW, raising the minimum wage is NOT an "incentive". It prices low skilled workers that first and foremost need to get in the habit of working out of the job market.

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