Hope

I have posted many videos and written much about the potential disaster facing my American neighbours if they don't do something about their deficit and debt.

This has caused some of my American neighbours to declare that I don't like the U.S.A.

America is the current empire king. They are the big dog in every way there is to measure, sports, military, arts, economy, and they are for the most part, the best.

The problem is when you have been the best for a very long time you start to believe that you are invincible, you beat your chest and chant your name at every opportunity. Unfortunately this success seems to lead to an arrogance, an arrogance that can make the rest of the world a little angry, or perhaps just envious.

Maybe from a psychological perspective this arrogance is the actual trigger that leads to the downfall of all empires. At some point in any empire's history this belief in themselves leads to a certain blindness. I have heard many, from President Obama to Warren Buffett declare that America will come out of this simply because they are American.

That in itself does not just display the problem, it screams the problem to the rest of us who are not American. Some how, some way, reality is going to hit home and I'm afraid it's going to take some major catastrophe for Americans to finally accept the problem.

Just being American is not going to fix this.

Whatever the case I do not dislike America, I quite enjoy them and all they offer. For my country, Canada, they are the reason for our prosperity. They buy almost everything we have for sale.

So my concern for the possible decline or destruction of the American empire is purely selfish.

If they go, we go.

So with that in mind I offer this little video, a story of one American company. A story that demonstrates what made America great, and more importantly offers hope that they can remain great.

They can remain great but in my view they are going to have to radically change in order to do that. Radically change they way IBM changed. IBM saw the computer business change from a knowledge business to a component business. In a knowledge business you are paid handsomely for your expertise, in a component business you are forced to compete almost solely on price. Those who can assemble components the cheapest win. IBM saw that this wasn't going to be them and they exited that business completely. Focusing solely on their advice business has proven to be very successful and more importantly provides a growth platform for the foreseeable future.

This example demonstrates that America can still prosper in this new world. They can prosper but it's going to have to come with significant change.

Union led component assemblers are not going to save your country.

I truly believe that America is at a key point in their history and until all Americans come to that same conclusion I'm not sure they are going to make the right decisions. At some point someone is going to have to get elected with the campaign promise to cut expenses and raise taxes. You make think that's impossible, but the Brits have already got there. Yes there are some rather noisy complaints but the key is the politicians in power got elected on that platform.

Anyway I've rambled on long enough. There is hope and yes good old American innovation is key to that hope.

That is as long as they figure out that you can't spend more than you take in for ever.