United States Economic Crisis

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United States Economic Crisis

Currently, the United States is facing an economic crisis that has never been experienced before. With the national debt increasing every year while the costs continue to rise, one cannot help but ask whether the country will be in a position to maintain its status as the world superpower once much of its money goes towards paying debts. This is one long-term effect of the 9/11 attack, after which United States engaged Afghanistan and Iraq in war. Over the period that these wars have lasted, the country has incurred around 1.5 trillion dollars. If the country continues to raise its debt crisis, very soon it will not be in a position to sustain its economy, resulting in a crisis.

In an article that appeared in your journal on November 20, 2013, president Obama has received much blame concerning the current economic status. Although the article recognizes that he is not to blame for everything that is happening, his policies are failing (The Wall Street Journal 1). At a time when the country is facing economic crisis, the government is seeking increased federal spending, which is doing little to help the middle class that is unemployed. I do agree that the government should be seeking ways of increasing employment in the country. In my opinion, spending more on public infrastructure and education does little to alleviate the problem. This is because education has been present but without employment, it is no good. At such a time, having more people graduating does not create employment.

Worse still, the government is spending money it does not have and recently, it has increased the debt ceiling in order to borrow more money, which comes at a cost (The Wall Street Journal 1). This cost will be transferred to the citizens, who will have to dig deeper into their already burdened pockets. This is through tax increase, just as is currently happening. With the economic crisis continuing and the government spending more money, it seems the only source of funding will be debts. This means that the people shall have to face the burden of paying these debts through taxes.

The nation is no longer producing what it requires to sustain itself. Currently, United States is importing more than they export. Worse still, majority of the companies and businesses are basing their production in other countries, which means that more goods have to come from abroad. This has been due to the cost advantage of production in other countries such as China and India. The trade deficit is among the issues that are hurting the United States economy. In order to regain control of the continuing crisis, it will be important for the country to reexamine its trade and globalization policies that for three decades have contributed to the deficit.

I also feel that the situation can be improved with good management of the market. The nation must condition its market on policies that ensure fairness and that local products are not at a disadvantage. For instance, goods from China can be extremely cheap compared to locally made goods. If no regulation is made to the market, local goods are at a serious disadvantage. This has not only affected the market for local goods, but also failing industries and increased unemployment as production goes abroad. Therefore, the government should implement policies that protect the local market to ensure a fair competition between foreign and domestic goods in order to control the trade deficit. In addition, I believe that the government should stop spending more money on areas that do not create employment such as education. Rather, it should use such funds to revive the failing factories and industries in order to create jobs.

Work cited

The Wall Street Journal. Daniel Henninger: Worse Than ObamaCare. wsj.com, November 20, 2013. Web. December 18, 2013.