Is America Going to the Dogs?

An issue is hovering like a thundercloud on the 1988 horizon. Is America in historic, cyclical decline? Is America’s role as the world’s economic and military superpower shrinking? Is the U.S. becoming demoralized? Never mind that some of the worries are spurious. Politically, the fact that people are worried is worrisome enough for D.C. Republicans.

Already the leitmotifs are being sounded. How does the U.S. compete in the world economy today? The persistence of a $200-billion-plus domestic deficit, a staggering trade deficit ($37 billion in the first quarter of 1987), America’s status as the planet’s biggest debtor nation, the collapse of the dollar and of America’s per-capita gross national product—for the first time below Japan’s and West Germany’s—collectively signal the slow slide of U.S. hegemony. Once-proud U.S. industries have been humbled by better-quality cars, steel, and even computer products. American banks have been bumped from the list of the world’s top ten. Within the past ten years, American productivity has grown by a grim 0.9 per cent. The shift from manufacturing to service jobs has gone so far so fast that dislocations abound. How can a country keep its economic clout with an eroded industrial base?

JM

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John McLaughlin

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An issue is hovering like a thundercloud on the 1988 horizon. Is America in historic, cyclical decline? Is America’s role as the world’s economic and military superpower shrinking? Is the U.S. becoming demoralized? Never mind that some of the worries are spurious. Politically, the fact that people are worried is worrisome enough for D.C. Republicans.

Already the leitmotifs are being sounded. How does the U.S. compete in the world economy today? The persistence of a $200-billion-plus domestic deficit, a staggering trade deficit ($37 billion in the first quarter of 1987), America’s status as the planet’s biggest debtor nation, the collapse of the dollar and of America’s per-capita gross national product—for the first time below Japan’s and West Germany’s—collectively signal the slow slide of U.S. hegemony. Once-proud U.S. industries have been humbled by better-quality cars, steel, and even computer products. American banks have been bumped from the list of the world’s top ten. Within the past ten years, American productivity has grown by a grim 0.9 per cent. The shift from manufacturing to service jobs has gone so far so fast that dislocations abound. How can a country keep its economic clout with an eroded industrial base?