Thoughts about balancing the U.S. economy in the world

20100620 JEDCline

Thoughts about balancing the U.S. economy in the world

Ref: "U.S. once again cast as world's consumer of last resort" article

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-global-economy-20100620,0,1603901.story

Since Americans use 20% of world's oil energy and produce only 2% of it, the $1 billion a day going offshore to buy oil is a major waste. Much of that oil goes to push our behemoth vehicles around to move us around everyday.

So it seems to me that if We Americans would focus on innovative ways to have much greater time, convenience, and energy efficiency in our movements, this would be an effective effort to improve our economy and reduce the trade deficit. Think changing 20% down to 2%: that is a big change; this is serious innovation, instead of incremental improvements just to keep "business as usual" going along to supply routine dividends rolling in.

While it would be nice to drag around a 4 bedroom house on wheels everywhere we go, having the luxuries and safety of home wherever we go, it is not really addressing the basic need to occasionally move ourselves and purchases around. Even moving the typical 3,000 pound car's mass simply to move our 165 pound weight to the job and back each day, clearly is not efficient. Yet the car provides a way to get to work 20 times faster than walking, and occasionally keeps the rain off and ruffians from assaulting along the way. So innovate how to do those functions without the 3,000 pounds to haul around too, that is all. View the bigger picture, how things interact, will help.

Another major item is the "stimulus money" which has gone to help create jobs, such as road construction, improving needed infrastructure. But we ought to equally use that stimulus money, as so many other nations did to jump-start their economies in the past, to focus on producing goods and services to be provided as exports, producing goods and services that efficiently compete in the world economy, as well as be useful at home.

And, in the process, it needs to increase people's being conscious of being productive and contributing to the American economy in the world system, an increased busyness including some that is paid time. This overall ideally could bring in the 10% of us who are not adequately employed, too, as well as adding some productivity even for retired folks.

Keep a notebook at hand: how much gas did you save when walking to the corner store to get a small sack of goodies, instead of firing up the big gas buggy to do it today? What was that experience like? Can you imagine some other way to have made it even more interesting, efficient and convenient?