Each generation should try to add a little wealth to the next. A society is said to grow richer as its old people plant trees whose shade they will never enjoy themselves.
At the present time the largest factor in the US population decline is US immigration policy. Immigration policy is driven by the laws enacted by congress over time. If Kamala had been elected to the presidency, and if she enforced immigration law, the results would be the same as the Trump administration. However, the democrats do not enforce laws they do ]not agree with. So do we want to change immigration policy to stave off population decline? No, we need to follow the law and seek to admit those folks who respect America values and who will contribute to the American way of life.
The points you make are salient, the problem is that Ponzi schemes like Social Security are based on numbers of people paying to support the people that came before them! Years ago, there were about 7 1/2 people paying for one person, now it’s more like 2.5 or maybe even less!
That is not a problem. How do dems solve problems? They raise taxes. So you young ones need to pay more taxes and that will fix the problem for now. Later...well more taxes of course.
Unless you've encouraged Gangbangers, rapists and garden-variety nutjobs to immigrate along with those that would produce more wealth. At that point you will have just added additional tax burden for prisons, asylums and healthcare costs.
I agree ! We need to throw out the folks who do not respect American values, the constitution on which it was founded or contribute to the American way of life. The biggest offender...Donald J. Trump
.... please explain how DJT disrespects American values.
Please explain how reshoring industry, building up military strength, aligning America's bounties to ensure sovereignty and reliance upon other foreign nations is counter to American values.
Perhaps only counter to your socialistic desires?...
Seems the previous inept senile old man was the one giving the finger to Patriots.
you are speaking logically to a man suffering from severe TDS, showing him the pain and then providing the aspirin will not work, he requires at a minimum a 90 day course of Fukitol. Two tablets in the morning and two again before bed.
Perhaps it's not just the Dims who support illegal immigration. Texas and Florida are at the top of the list of percentages of illegals. The Big Boys like to use illegals to save money on wages. Even Donald himself has a long history of using illegals. Way back In 1980, Donald Trump used approximately 200 undocumented Polish workers—often referred to as the "Polish Brigade"—to demolish the Bonwit Teller building to make room for Trump Tower.
TDS Bill blames Trump for population decline as he deports CRIMINALS, and bitches about no more real jobs which Trump is also trying to bring back by repatriating industry. Bill really needs help for his TDS.
Yes. Apparently, Mr. Bonner believes that letting in more rapists, murderers, drug dealers, child traffickers, etc. is a good thing because only population growth matters. Immigration should not be stopped but controlled to fulfill our job needs
Statistically, for the last 140 yrs, immigrants appear to have a lower incarceration rate than US born citizens! This could be taken to mean that they commit less crimes!
First, we’re not talking about all immigrants. We are talking about illegal aliens. Second, the relative crime rate of illegals does not matter because it should and can be zero if zero illegals are here.
THANK you for using proper terminology: illegal alien. They are NOT immigrants. To immigrate implies a legal process. These people are criminal border trespassers, their first act, upon crossing our border, is criminal.
Calling criminal border trespassers - illegals aliens - “immigrants” demeans the word and in a slap in the face to those who immigrated here legally.
If only the leftards and Type-1 TDS’ers could grasp this.
People complain about illegal immigrants being here and I understand the complaint, but
I don’t think a lot of people understand exactly how many people we have working here in various fields like agriculture and hospitality and others, that would be classified as not exactly legal!
Currently, we’re having issues due to our birth rate being lower and our population dropping below replacement levels without immigration!
which is supposed to be leading to a lower amount of taxes being collected and less people to help support programs like Social Security and Medicare!
Now we’re going to have less people working in certain jobs because AI will be taking some of the jobs!
It’s very difficult for people to become legal citizens here!
What is the answer to this problem? It’s a complex and far reaching problem!
During Trumps first term he offered a path for DACA as well as an expanded work Visa program for temporary workers, in exchange for support for ending the chaos on the border by building the wall and enhanced border security. The Dems refused.
In fact, Biden encouraged even more chaos and crime as a Democrat policy, now granting his own form of "legal" status - one without any vetting process.
Biden purposely "built" massive enclaves of illegal aliens and concentrated their numbers so as to totally thwart any process of assimilation in the hope of creating large wards of democrat supporters with foreign allegiance, using American taxpayer funds.
.
I encourage all TDS types to contemplate their own role as accessories to this obvious crime against their fellow citizens. Their support of the autocrat, Biden and his henchmen. It explains fully, the divisions in the nation that we see today.
What TDS democrats now decry as "revenge", sane and loyal Americans recognize as a laudable effort at an overdue "renewal".
So, what's your point? We don't have enough crime in the US, so we should import some more. I'll tell you what, Linda, why don't you go knock on the door of parents that have had the daughters raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant and show them your statistics. I'm sure that will make them feel a lot better, don't you?
Just let them apply while they are still in their own country of origin. Then if they get accepted welcome to America. If not then they are just simply criminals and must go.
Well, by inference you did by boiling it all down to statistics, disregarding the individual lives that have been destroyed. So, you give it a rest. You don't like pushback, then stop commenting on my posts.
I understand your point, that’s why our immigration system needs an overhaul so people who want to become legal have the opportunity without being hung up for years while spending lots of money they may not have!
With the current political divide in this country (and getting worse) we will have a civil war before any agreement on immigration will be agreed upon.
Jimm, even under the best of conditions for our domestic employers, we still take steps to outlaw predatory business practices such as monopolies, fraud, bid-rigging, etc.
Why then do we allow foreign actors to use all of these levers - including mercantilist dumping policies - against our nation?
As to the hope of gaining market share in China, that was always a chimera. This, as opposed to the reality of open access to our own consumer markets which Trump now seeks to both monetize and to seek means of redress for unfair business practices, with his tariff policy.
A reality check:
What begins as a dictated 51% ownership stake by China soon sees a 100% state owned competitor set up, using stolen intellectual property, knockoffs, etc., and enjoying an access to Chinese consumers that is effectively denied to outsiders.
Been there - done that. Eventually, the company I worked for simply gave over its advanced (circulating fluidized bed) Coal Fired Power Plant technology as we folded up shop here.
However, unfortunately for the entire world ecosphere, the Chinese will always choose the cost savings of not installing pollution controls on the many plants they now build. They also were similarly disinterested in any of our EPA rules.
"Ed, We don't tolerate our exporters and investors to be exploited".
Of course we do Jimm. We already have. Those corporate titans eagerly accepting the terms of Chinese authorities in exchange for nothing but a promise of access to "billions of Chinese consumers", bought a "Pig in a poke" as they used to say. Khruschev saw this Achilles Heel of corporate greed, decades ago, when he banged his shoe on the UN floor and stated that "you will sell us the rope by which we will hang you".
Our corporate guys got fleeced, our government officials held their coats and cheered as it was happening, and they collectively endangered our entire nation in the process and got "nada" for their perfidy.
The Chinese played them, collectively like a fiddle, although certain individual government officials also profited immensely under the guise of $USAid and Congressional appropriation. I only hope I live long enough to see the worst of them "swing" for their crimes - but I know that will probably never happen. Our own population is too easily distracted, too bovine, to demand it.
I had a front row seat in the international industrial energy, chemical, oil & gas, and biopharma business, as this all went down - and I'm a second-generation player as well. Watched as our critical industries left the Northeast, went South and eventually relocated overseas. If this is to be undone, it will take a radical course change, a leader with the proper vision business background and time.
That last one is most concerning for me. We live in a nation of internet and TV soundbites with a bad case of collective amnesia and an aversion to books and geo-political history.
Ed, We don't tolerate our exporters and investors to be exploited.
There are cadres of Federal employees who are assigned to help US exporters and investors. They are paid to confront foreign governments whose policies are injurious to our exporters and investors.
They are located in the State Department, USTR (US Trade Representative) and in the Commerce Department.
There is even a US government agency that encourages US firms and individuals to invest abroad.
It does this foremost by insuring investors in the event a foreign government expropriates their investment.
And there's a bank, the US Export Import Bank (EXIM), that helps US exporters sell their products by proffering foreign buyers access to credit they can't get in their country to buy American-made products.
Boeing, our largest exporter, frequently uses EXIM to sell its airplanes to foreign airlines
You list all the usual Government players as though they can be as effective, individually, or in unison, as a central figure acting in full view of the public eye. Myriad apparatchiks, regularly dining on K street, with their private benefactors, somehow preserving their fealty to...whom?.
Somehow, the larger and starkly factual picture of the obvious shortcomings to the current arrangement to which you subscribe, that of wholesale transference of not simply our production facilities but key technologies, is now to be taken on faith alone, that somehow, all is well. I'm sorry Jimm, but I reject that thesis in its entirety.
I find the notion that some trade bureaucrat, operating in the shadows with immense authority over trade agreements and in close contact with both foreign entities, K Street and Wall Street, would act with noble intent on my behalf, to be absolutely ludicrous.
Beyond the very human failing of individual human greed, I will also note that any bureaucratic construct that provides a cloaked anonymity to its members, in exchange for the support of its members, will quickly become a breeding ground for all manner of abuse of power.
We already see this in the dismal performance of our unionized government educational institutions, again in the recent selling out of the nation's voters by our Intel and Justice agencies as "the 51 Intel" sworn liars covering the Obama-Bidem soft coup and the Bidens overseas grifting, aptly attest.
None of this comes as a surprise to me. All of it, in toto, seems to always provide cover to the worst players, even once revealed.
But what to do about it?
More televised "harumphing hearings" by Congressional toadies? Seems to just be more group performance by the Drama Club kids, with nothing to show at the end of the day.
Thus, I will now roll the dice on a single leader taking in the effect of everything in aggregate, both good and bad. One bent on radical reform as his personal opportunity, if only to burnish his own image for the historical record. And will simply pray for some measure of change for the better. Knowing that it can't be any worse than what we have seen play out right in front of our eyes.
The very fact that we've already given away our middleclass jobs, manufacturing edge, intellectual property rights, domestic legal authority with the loss of control over our own borders' - all transgressions that threaten the security of our children is enough to rationalize a radical course correction for me.
Ronald Reagan said it best; "Babies and politicians (and lifetime bureaucrats) need to be changed often - and for the same reason".
I agree that "We live in a nation of internet and TV soundbites with a bad case of collective amnesia and an aversion to books and geo-political history."
And I agree that "Our corporate guys got fleeced" by the Chinese, your former firm among the fleeced.
However, I was encouraged when I learned our one of our consulates in China denied visas to several Chinese who wanted to come to the US to steal industrial know how.
Small victory in the scheme of things but emblematic of our State Department's diligence to protect our industrial edge.
And I don't dispute your contention that our Ship of State needs to be made shipshape. It is unwieldy, spends too much and can use a revamping.
As a balanced budget, small government advocate, some of my favorite suggestions to make our government less costly and more efficient is privatizing the Departments of Energy, Education, Commerce and Housing, plus reducing the number of personnel in the Pentagon.
And our self-imposed role as world policeman needs to be reconsidered.
I disagree, however, with your contention that the losses, societal changes and diminishments you cite are attributable solely to a dysfunctional government.
Moreover, our government does not conspire to export jobs or technologies. Or tolerate injurious tariffs imposed by other countries.
Nearly everything our industries sell abroad requires an export license.
And there are Federal employees in the State and Commerce Departments who routinely deny exports of products and cutting edge technologies.
I believe government efficiencies are necessary; perhaps they can be achieved by a strongman, but not by the ethically compromised one we have now, a man who was elected to run one branch of our government but who erratically comports himself as if he runs them all.
Sadly, there is noting on the horizon to indicate any change in direction. I live 50 miles west of Detroit, another city that was a great powerhouse for manufacturing. Today, about in the same shape as Baltimore. At 78, I won't be around to see the end of this disaster but history shows us how it ends. Every empire seems to follow the same path down through history.
Bill, I think you're onto something. Let's reverse the referred to illegal immigrant population decline by accelerating the previous administration's immigration policy. We can allow 100 million undocumented muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia and god knows where else into the country. Great for population growth... as long as you don't mind abdicating our sovereignty, eliminating our culture, encouarging parasitic welfare reliance at best and widespread lawlessness, fraud and Sharia law at worst.
From which of your domiciles would you regard this wonderful outcome; the well governed France, the antisemitic Ireland or the land of personal freedom, communist Nicaragua?
Regarding Baltimore, I'm sure if it hadn't been for Trump Baltimore would have fared much better. If only it had the astute leadership of many free enterprise Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi's father and family...oh it did.
The debt is atrocious, deadly and inexcusable, you are correct. Sadly, sometimes bad is preferable to the alternative. A continuation, or reinstatement, of the policies of the previous adminstration would result in exorbitantly higher deficits and debt, the loss of our national sovereignty, rampant lawlessness, corruption and we wouldn't even know the difference between a man and a woman.
Please put a little context and relativity into your comments.
It's not the fault of the immigrants that our border is so porous.
Conflating their undocumented status as illegal (meaning criminal) is an over-reach.
A simple way to redress the phenomenon of so many heeding the Statue of Liberty's clarion call is to create a program to document those who slipped across our border.
The criteria to become "documented" could be if they established a business, pay tax, good work history, endorsements from their priest or pastor, active in their community, basically demonstrating they are good potential citizens.
Those that don't become documented can be deported but encouraged to apply to immigrate at the US Embassy in the country from which they came and to which they will be returned.
An in-country form of documenting foreign born individuals could sunset in 12 months. This extraordinary, short term program would garner far more people than ICE
I am waiting for that nice resort report from flint michigan. The la la la la la No deed for an alarm clock or a wake up call , you'll hear it from the minarets.
"May you outlive your children.".. Not Yogi berra.
If banks turn our country into a nation of renters. Renters now also using the banks credit cards for purchases and debt, with an independent Federal Reserve of bankers to establish credit terms, doesn't it all begin to mimic a modern-day feudal system of Lords and Peasants?
Another Bonner column of half-truths and half-baked ideas. He laments about the decline of population and uses Baltimore as one example, but only hints at the fact (instead of taking it on directly) that no decent person would want to live there now. He's concerned about keeping up with infrastructure with a declining population and doesn't have the imagination that our infrastructure needs may be much different and much less with technological advancements. He's looking at the issue from one perspective only, like the people lamenting that AI is going to destroy jobs only and not create new opportunities.
Mr. Gallien, Excellent comment. I decided to read Bill today. I tend to read him only about once a week anymore to get a laugh. You call what Bill writes "half-truths." I like to call them cherry-picking of stats. And he has no self-awareness anymore. About the same as these leftist Hollywood elites. For example, he writes these columns from a luxury resort in one of the poorest countries on earth (ranked 145 out of 195 countries reviewed annually by the IMF; nominal GDP of about $3,000 compared to $90,000 for the U.S.). And a country ruled by a dictator.
His bizarre Baltimore "analysis" has been torn apart by you and others in the Comments section, so I don't need to add anything there. But I will add that his constant bashing of older Americans is terribly misleading and extremely shallow. Money cycles through an economic system, from Mary to John to Company A to worker Bill to Company R to fed/state/local govt. to Cindy to Ron, etc., etc. So much of the money that SS provides to older Americans, especially to those in the middle-class and upper-classes, is given by these folks to younger Americans (related to them most of the time) via housing, autos, furniture, education expenses, jobs, etc., etc. I agree that SS and Medicare should never have gotten started, but Bill's extremely shallow analysis is a piece of propaganda, whether he intends this or not, which can only inflame shallow people. As you know, to convince "thinking" people, you have to put things into perspective with context, and provide some discernment.
This is sad because I remember not too many years ago, Bill would write five essays, M-F, about one major issue. Now he just jumps around in each essay---and tries to tie everything bad to Pres. Trump. I can only believe that he lives a very sheltered life, and that as a CEO and billionaire, no one in his employ or anyone related to him will dare challenge him. So he thinks everything he writes is God-like, so he doesn't bother to read the Comments section.
Yes indeed the US is no longer growing (as you point out it is Trumps fault), Baltimore, ah yes, the once great Baltimore is today, well, a shit-hole. Surprised that isn’t Trumps fault, did you miss an opportunity? Baltimore is, like other shit holes - run by democrat administrations. Surprise! Don’t worry blame Trump, you have the MSM for support.
When you talk about planting shade trees under which you will never sit, are you refering to that $5 bucks you gave the homeless guy?
Finally, i see you awoke and provide some narrative, at a very basic level, and identified what the United States “should” do:
"If the US wanted to treat its young people decently, it would trim its budget and avoid spending more than its current taxpayers are willing to pay for”.
Kind of boiler plate bullshit don’t you think? As the ole lady use to say on the Wendy’s commercials….. “Wheres the beef”!
One reason is a loss of the manufacturing base. Since 1970 Baltimore has loss about 100,000 manufacturing jobs. The same thing happened in Philadelphia. In fact the Kensington neighborhood of drug zombie fame once was a working class neighborhood. I even had a summer job at a button factory there back in 1973. I got to the job on public transportation and had no safety concerns whatever. Of course all those factories were closed.
Yes,close all the factories and import cheaper goods produced by communist slave Labor in China or Vietnam or sweat shop clothing factories in Bangladesh.
Yesterday Bill Bonner stated that U.S taxpayers were taken advantage of by the Government TARP bailout in 2008, and Kevin Warsh was involved in the negotiations. Bill continues to promote an incorrect narrative. In reality TARP was simply a bridge loan from the taxpayers to the banking system. The loan was repaid in full and taxpayers received interest on the loan.
But wouldn't it have been preferable to let the Banksters go bankrupt to clean out the system and restart it? The Creative Destruction necessary for a successful capitalist economy. Instead the Fed kicked the can down the road by suppressing interest rates and printing money.
So now it’sTrumps fault for the population decline. How about blaming poor state government handling of infrastructure improvement, crime reduction, and safety of its citizens. That is one reason for Baltimore’s decline and there are many others. Economics also plays an important role but that is caused by many previous administrations. BB I wouldn’t want an elite like you to have a problem getting a reservation at a restaurant.
Yes the population is slowing. This is partly due to removing immigrants and partly due to young females and men who do not want chrildren. Today's young are not their parents of yesteryear and while not rejecting all their values, want a freer life style. So let's not blame Trump for all the negative reports that have other causes as well.
Do you blame the young for not wanting to have kids? With the "improvements" to our economy both parents have to work to support a family. I wouldn't have wanted to have kids either if my wife had had to go back to work. I look fondly back on my childhood when almost all my grade school classmates would walk home for lunch. I didn't know anyone whose mother worked.
Cities can't afford to tear down houses that are not repairable. They continue to fall into further disrepair, become an eyesore or drug house or fire hazard. At least New Orleans cleaned out some of the homes lost to Katrina. Look at Italy, homes waiting for someone to move in. Parts of the U.S. will be like that with whole sections of a city being avoided. Dependance on federal money, either welfare or fraud will end as the government is broke. Bill has been trying for 50+ years to get Congress to wake up to no avail. I am not bright enough to see a way to correct this and am concerned that civil war may be the only way out.
I marvel at the mentally challenged MAGAts quick to throw the TDS moniker with nary a comment on the underlying point of the article-the $1,000,000,000,000 additional debt added in a quarter while making us “great again”.
Why not address the causes of the collapsing birth rate.
Sex without commitment to a marriage.
Easy no fault divorce.
Lesbians, sexual perversions;" I want to be a man" is the extreme end if this world view.
Welfare for single mothers.
Many boys spend the 1st 20 years of their lives being controlled by mothers, women teachers, and forced to act like little girls and have no successful male role models. An example is on the TV news every day, women politicians talking down to the public like they are talking to preschool kids.
Lack of valuing having children.
Changed education system to deliberately promote women against men, uni full of women who think via feminism that they must have a career and earn lots of money, so having a family is a burden not a joy or priority.
Lack of jobs for young men.
DEI for women and never for normal straight young men.
Limits/ rules/ red tape on house building so there is a shortage of affordable homes and vast numbers of immigrants, all of whom must live somewhere.
Abortion promoted.
Women must work and use child care rather than being encouraged and helped morally/ financially/ emotionally to want children.
Most of the parts of the country are now " managed" by women who want to control everything, rather than looking after their own home. Many women want a " partner" they can control rather than submitting to looking after a husband and caring for their children and old parents.
Godly values are not being taught but feminist ones are. Wok, the feminist disease.
Selfishness rather than self denial and self sacrifice to care for others.
" I don't need a boyfriend/ husband because I am a complete person on my own"
Hatred towards all men.
Lack of forgiveness, mental illness/ medication from following humanistic beliefs.
All these issues need to be addressed or the birth rate will never recover.
At the present time the largest factor in the US population decline is US immigration policy. Immigration policy is driven by the laws enacted by congress over time. If Kamala had been elected to the presidency, and if she enforced immigration law, the results would be the same as the Trump administration. However, the democrats do not enforce laws they do ]not agree with. So do we want to change immigration policy to stave off population decline? No, we need to follow the law and seek to admit those folks who respect America values and who will contribute to the American way of life.
... I'm not sure why a lessor population is a bad thing.
Seems to me reducing the population to the 1950's would be great!
Less traffic, less pollution and shorter lines at DisneyLand!
The points you make are salient, the problem is that Ponzi schemes like Social Security are based on numbers of people paying to support the people that came before them! Years ago, there were about 7 1/2 people paying for one person, now it’s more like 2.5 or maybe even less!
That is not a problem. How do dems solve problems? They raise taxes. So you young ones need to pay more taxes and that will fix the problem for now. Later...well more taxes of course.
The more you tax something, the less of it you get.
The simplest way to generate more tax revenue is to enable more people to produce more wealth; more wealth produces more tax revenue
Unless you've encouraged Gangbangers, rapists and garden-variety nutjobs to immigrate along with those that would produce more wealth. At that point you will have just added additional tax burden for prisons, asylums and healthcare costs.
I agree ! We need to throw out the folks who do not respect American values, the constitution on which it was founded or contribute to the American way of life. The biggest offender...Donald J. Trump
.... please explain how DJT disrespects American values.
Please explain how reshoring industry, building up military strength, aligning America's bounties to ensure sovereignty and reliance upon other foreign nations is counter to American values.
Perhaps only counter to your socialistic desires?...
Seems the previous inept senile old man was the one giving the finger to Patriots.
you are speaking logically to a man suffering from severe TDS, showing him the pain and then providing the aspirin will not work, he requires at a minimum a 90 day course of Fukitol. Two tablets in the morning and two again before bed.
Perhaps it's not just the Dims who support illegal immigration. Texas and Florida are at the top of the list of percentages of illegals. The Big Boys like to use illegals to save money on wages. Even Donald himself has a long history of using illegals. Way back In 1980, Donald Trump used approximately 200 undocumented Polish workers—often referred to as the "Polish Brigade"—to demolish the Bonwit Teller building to make room for Trump Tower.
I don't believe for one minute that the Mob Unions of NY City allowed Trump to use non-union workers.
TDS Bill blames Trump for population decline as he deports CRIMINALS, and bitches about no more real jobs which Trump is also trying to bring back by repatriating industry. Bill really needs help for his TDS.
Yes. Apparently, Mr. Bonner believes that letting in more rapists, murderers, drug dealers, child traffickers, etc. is a good thing because only population growth matters. Immigration should not be stopped but controlled to fulfill our job needs
Statistically, for the last 140 yrs, immigrants appear to have a lower incarceration rate than US born citizens! This could be taken to mean that they commit less crimes!
First, we’re not talking about all immigrants. We are talking about illegal aliens. Second, the relative crime rate of illegals does not matter because it should and can be zero if zero illegals are here.
THANK you for using proper terminology: illegal alien. They are NOT immigrants. To immigrate implies a legal process. These people are criminal border trespassers, their first act, upon crossing our border, is criminal.
Calling criminal border trespassers - illegals aliens - “immigrants” demeans the word and in a slap in the face to those who immigrated here legally.
If only the leftards and Type-1 TDS’ers could grasp this.
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/why-legal-immigration-nearly-impossible
People complain about illegal immigrants being here and I understand the complaint, but
I don’t think a lot of people understand exactly how many people we have working here in various fields like agriculture and hospitality and others, that would be classified as not exactly legal!
Currently, we’re having issues due to our birth rate being lower and our population dropping below replacement levels without immigration!
which is supposed to be leading to a lower amount of taxes being collected and less people to help support programs like Social Security and Medicare!
Now we’re going to have less people working in certain jobs because AI will be taking some of the jobs!
It’s very difficult for people to become legal citizens here!
What is the answer to this problem? It’s a complex and far reaching problem!
During Trumps first term he offered a path for DACA as well as an expanded work Visa program for temporary workers, in exchange for support for ending the chaos on the border by building the wall and enhanced border security. The Dems refused.
In fact, Biden encouraged even more chaos and crime as a Democrat policy, now granting his own form of "legal" status - one without any vetting process.
Biden purposely "built" massive enclaves of illegal aliens and concentrated their numbers so as to totally thwart any process of assimilation in the hope of creating large wards of democrat supporters with foreign allegiance, using American taxpayer funds.
.
I encourage all TDS types to contemplate their own role as accessories to this obvious crime against their fellow citizens. Their support of the autocrat, Biden and his henchmen. It explains fully, the divisions in the nation that we see today.
What TDS democrats now decry as "revenge", sane and loyal Americans recognize as a laudable effort at an overdue "renewal".
So, what's your point? We don't have enough crime in the US, so we should import some more. I'll tell you what, Linda, why don't you go knock on the door of parents that have had the daughters raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant and show them your statistics. I'm sure that will make them feel a lot better, don't you?
Give it a rest. I never said I wanted to import a bunch of illegal aliens!
Just let them apply while they are still in their own country of origin. Then if they get accepted welcome to America. If not then they are just simply criminals and must go.
Well, by inference you did by boiling it all down to statistics, disregarding the individual lives that have been destroyed. So, you give it a rest. You don't like pushback, then stop commenting on my posts.
Perhaps you shouldn’t infer since you inferred wrongly!
How about the crime of being here illegally? (15 million) That could mean more crimes.
I understand your point, that’s why our immigration system needs an overhaul so people who want to become legal have the opportunity without being hung up for years while spending lots of money they may not have!
With the current political divide in this country (and getting worse) we will have a civil war before any agreement on immigration will be agreed upon.
You might be right!
Sadly
Repatriating industry will not be a boon.
Industries go abroad so their products can gain market share; to stay competitive.
The foremost reason is lower wage rates overseas
This search by industry for lower wage rates begins whenever competition starts eroding profitability
It's why there are so many empty mills in the north; their owners moved south. Now they move abroad.
Returning to the US means a higher priced product which doesn't translate into more buyers
Jimm, even under the best of conditions for our domestic employers, we still take steps to outlaw predatory business practices such as monopolies, fraud, bid-rigging, etc.
Why then do we allow foreign actors to use all of these levers - including mercantilist dumping policies - against our nation?
As to the hope of gaining market share in China, that was always a chimera. This, as opposed to the reality of open access to our own consumer markets which Trump now seeks to both monetize and to seek means of redress for unfair business practices, with his tariff policy.
A reality check:
What begins as a dictated 51% ownership stake by China soon sees a 100% state owned competitor set up, using stolen intellectual property, knockoffs, etc., and enjoying an access to Chinese consumers that is effectively denied to outsiders.
Been there - done that. Eventually, the company I worked for simply gave over its advanced (circulating fluidized bed) Coal Fired Power Plant technology as we folded up shop here.
However, unfortunately for the entire world ecosphere, the Chinese will always choose the cost savings of not installing pollution controls on the many plants they now build. They also were similarly disinterested in any of our EPA rules.
"Ed, We don't tolerate our exporters and investors to be exploited".
Of course we do Jimm. We already have. Those corporate titans eagerly accepting the terms of Chinese authorities in exchange for nothing but a promise of access to "billions of Chinese consumers", bought a "Pig in a poke" as they used to say. Khruschev saw this Achilles Heel of corporate greed, decades ago, when he banged his shoe on the UN floor and stated that "you will sell us the rope by which we will hang you".
Our corporate guys got fleeced, our government officials held their coats and cheered as it was happening, and they collectively endangered our entire nation in the process and got "nada" for their perfidy.
The Chinese played them, collectively like a fiddle, although certain individual government officials also profited immensely under the guise of $USAid and Congressional appropriation. I only hope I live long enough to see the worst of them "swing" for their crimes - but I know that will probably never happen. Our own population is too easily distracted, too bovine, to demand it.
I had a front row seat in the international industrial energy, chemical, oil & gas, and biopharma business, as this all went down - and I'm a second-generation player as well. Watched as our critical industries left the Northeast, went South and eventually relocated overseas. If this is to be undone, it will take a radical course change, a leader with the proper vision business background and time.
That last one is most concerning for me. We live in a nation of internet and TV soundbites with a bad case of collective amnesia and an aversion to books and geo-political history.
Ed, We don't tolerate our exporters and investors to be exploited.
There are cadres of Federal employees who are assigned to help US exporters and investors. They are paid to confront foreign governments whose policies are injurious to our exporters and investors.
They are located in the State Department, USTR (US Trade Representative) and in the Commerce Department.
There is even a US government agency that encourages US firms and individuals to invest abroad.
It does this foremost by insuring investors in the event a foreign government expropriates their investment.
And there's a bank, the US Export Import Bank (EXIM), that helps US exporters sell their products by proffering foreign buyers access to credit they can't get in their country to buy American-made products.
Boeing, our largest exporter, frequently uses EXIM to sell its airplanes to foreign airlines
You list all the usual Government players as though they can be as effective, individually, or in unison, as a central figure acting in full view of the public eye. Myriad apparatchiks, regularly dining on K street, with their private benefactors, somehow preserving their fealty to...whom?.
Somehow, the larger and starkly factual picture of the obvious shortcomings to the current arrangement to which you subscribe, that of wholesale transference of not simply our production facilities but key technologies, is now to be taken on faith alone, that somehow, all is well. I'm sorry Jimm, but I reject that thesis in its entirety.
I find the notion that some trade bureaucrat, operating in the shadows with immense authority over trade agreements and in close contact with both foreign entities, K Street and Wall Street, would act with noble intent on my behalf, to be absolutely ludicrous.
Beyond the very human failing of individual human greed, I will also note that any bureaucratic construct that provides a cloaked anonymity to its members, in exchange for the support of its members, will quickly become a breeding ground for all manner of abuse of power.
We already see this in the dismal performance of our unionized government educational institutions, again in the recent selling out of the nation's voters by our Intel and Justice agencies as "the 51 Intel" sworn liars covering the Obama-Bidem soft coup and the Bidens overseas grifting, aptly attest.
None of this comes as a surprise to me. All of it, in toto, seems to always provide cover to the worst players, even once revealed.
But what to do about it?
More televised "harumphing hearings" by Congressional toadies? Seems to just be more group performance by the Drama Club kids, with nothing to show at the end of the day.
Thus, I will now roll the dice on a single leader taking in the effect of everything in aggregate, both good and bad. One bent on radical reform as his personal opportunity, if only to burnish his own image for the historical record. And will simply pray for some measure of change for the better. Knowing that it can't be any worse than what we have seen play out right in front of our eyes.
The very fact that we've already given away our middleclass jobs, manufacturing edge, intellectual property rights, domestic legal authority with the loss of control over our own borders' - all transgressions that threaten the security of our children is enough to rationalize a radical course correction for me.
Ronald Reagan said it best; "Babies and politicians (and lifetime bureaucrats) need to be changed often - and for the same reason".
I agree that "We live in a nation of internet and TV soundbites with a bad case of collective amnesia and an aversion to books and geo-political history."
And I agree that "Our corporate guys got fleeced" by the Chinese, your former firm among the fleeced.
However, I was encouraged when I learned our one of our consulates in China denied visas to several Chinese who wanted to come to the US to steal industrial know how.
Small victory in the scheme of things but emblematic of our State Department's diligence to protect our industrial edge.
I respect your articulate rejoinder.
And I don't dispute your contention that our Ship of State needs to be made shipshape. It is unwieldy, spends too much and can use a revamping.
As a balanced budget, small government advocate, some of my favorite suggestions to make our government less costly and more efficient is privatizing the Departments of Energy, Education, Commerce and Housing, plus reducing the number of personnel in the Pentagon.
And our self-imposed role as world policeman needs to be reconsidered.
I disagree, however, with your contention that the losses, societal changes and diminishments you cite are attributable solely to a dysfunctional government.
Moreover, our government does not conspire to export jobs or technologies. Or tolerate injurious tariffs imposed by other countries.
Nearly everything our industries sell abroad requires an export license.
And there are Federal employees in the State and Commerce Departments who routinely deny exports of products and cutting edge technologies.
I believe government efficiencies are necessary; perhaps they can be achieved by a strongman, but not by the ethically compromised one we have now, a man who was elected to run one branch of our government but who erratically comports himself as if he runs them all.
Sadly, there is noting on the horizon to indicate any change in direction. I live 50 miles west of Detroit, another city that was a great powerhouse for manufacturing. Today, about in the same shape as Baltimore. At 78, I won't be around to see the end of this disaster but history shows us how it ends. Every empire seems to follow the same path down through history.
Jim Marshall
Bill, I think you're onto something. Let's reverse the referred to illegal immigrant population decline by accelerating the previous administration's immigration policy. We can allow 100 million undocumented muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia and god knows where else into the country. Great for population growth... as long as you don't mind abdicating our sovereignty, eliminating our culture, encouarging parasitic welfare reliance at best and widespread lawlessness, fraud and Sharia law at worst.
From which of your domiciles would you regard this wonderful outcome; the well governed France, the antisemitic Ireland or the land of personal freedom, communist Nicaragua?
Regarding Baltimore, I'm sure if it hadn't been for Trump Baltimore would have fared much better. If only it had the astute leadership of many free enterprise Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi's father and family...oh it did.
The debt is atrocious, deadly and inexcusable, you are correct. Sadly, sometimes bad is preferable to the alternative. A continuation, or reinstatement, of the policies of the previous adminstration would result in exorbitantly higher deficits and debt, the loss of our national sovereignty, rampant lawlessness, corruption and we wouldn't even know the difference between a man and a woman.
Please put a little context and relativity into your comments.
It's not the fault of the immigrants that our border is so porous.
Conflating their undocumented status as illegal (meaning criminal) is an over-reach.
A simple way to redress the phenomenon of so many heeding the Statue of Liberty's clarion call is to create a program to document those who slipped across our border.
The criteria to become "documented" could be if they established a business, pay tax, good work history, endorsements from their priest or pastor, active in their community, basically demonstrating they are good potential citizens.
Those that don't become documented can be deported but encouraged to apply to immigrate at the US Embassy in the country from which they came and to which they will be returned.
An in-country form of documenting foreign born individuals could sunset in 12 months. This extraordinary, short term program would garner far more people than ICE
I am waiting for that nice resort report from flint michigan. The la la la la la No deed for an alarm clock or a wake up call , you'll hear it from the minarets.
"May you outlive your children.".. Not Yogi berra.
Another Bonner classic "We don’t take readily to people we don’t know...and some of us even cross the street to avoid people we do know." Hilarious.
Worthy of Twain!
Let the demographic decline go on long enough and our young might be able to afford a house.
Not if billionaire investment funds buy vast numbers of individual houses to rent out.
I think bill gates is the biggest farm owner in the country, where are the farming families who did work on this land?
If banks turn our country into a nation of renters. Renters now also using the banks credit cards for purchases and debt, with an independent Federal Reserve of bankers to establish credit terms, doesn't it all begin to mimic a modern-day feudal system of Lords and Peasants?
Another Bonner column of half-truths and half-baked ideas. He laments about the decline of population and uses Baltimore as one example, but only hints at the fact (instead of taking it on directly) that no decent person would want to live there now. He's concerned about keeping up with infrastructure with a declining population and doesn't have the imagination that our infrastructure needs may be much different and much less with technological advancements. He's looking at the issue from one perspective only, like the people lamenting that AI is going to destroy jobs only and not create new opportunities.
hard to see fact through those TDS blinders….
Mr. Gallien, Excellent comment. I decided to read Bill today. I tend to read him only about once a week anymore to get a laugh. You call what Bill writes "half-truths." I like to call them cherry-picking of stats. And he has no self-awareness anymore. About the same as these leftist Hollywood elites. For example, he writes these columns from a luxury resort in one of the poorest countries on earth (ranked 145 out of 195 countries reviewed annually by the IMF; nominal GDP of about $3,000 compared to $90,000 for the U.S.). And a country ruled by a dictator.
His bizarre Baltimore "analysis" has been torn apart by you and others in the Comments section, so I don't need to add anything there. But I will add that his constant bashing of older Americans is terribly misleading and extremely shallow. Money cycles through an economic system, from Mary to John to Company A to worker Bill to Company R to fed/state/local govt. to Cindy to Ron, etc., etc. So much of the money that SS provides to older Americans, especially to those in the middle-class and upper-classes, is given by these folks to younger Americans (related to them most of the time) via housing, autos, furniture, education expenses, jobs, etc., etc. I agree that SS and Medicare should never have gotten started, but Bill's extremely shallow analysis is a piece of propaganda, whether he intends this or not, which can only inflame shallow people. As you know, to convince "thinking" people, you have to put things into perspective with context, and provide some discernment.
This is sad because I remember not too many years ago, Bill would write five essays, M-F, about one major issue. Now he just jumps around in each essay---and tries to tie everything bad to Pres. Trump. I can only believe that he lives a very sheltered life, and that as a CEO and billionaire, no one in his employ or anyone related to him will dare challenge him. So he thinks everything he writes is God-like, so he doesn't bother to read the Comments section.
Yes indeed the US is no longer growing (as you point out it is Trumps fault), Baltimore, ah yes, the once great Baltimore is today, well, a shit-hole. Surprised that isn’t Trumps fault, did you miss an opportunity? Baltimore is, like other shit holes - run by democrat administrations. Surprise! Don’t worry blame Trump, you have the MSM for support.
When you talk about planting shade trees under which you will never sit, are you refering to that $5 bucks you gave the homeless guy?
Finally, i see you awoke and provide some narrative, at a very basic level, and identified what the United States “should” do:
"If the US wanted to treat its young people decently, it would trim its budget and avoid spending more than its current taxpayers are willing to pay for”.
Kind of boiler plate bullshit don’t you think? As the ole lady use to say on the Wendy’s commercials….. “Wheres the beef”!
Bill, Why has Baltimore population declined during a time the US population has gone up? That would be useful information.
because it became a democrat run, sanctuary city, shit hole
One reason is a loss of the manufacturing base. Since 1970 Baltimore has loss about 100,000 manufacturing jobs. The same thing happened in Philadelphia. In fact the Kensington neighborhood of drug zombie fame once was a working class neighborhood. I even had a summer job at a button factory there back in 1973. I got to the job on public transportation and had no safety concerns whatever. Of course all those factories were closed.
Yes,close all the factories and import cheaper goods produced by communist slave Labor in China or Vietnam or sweat shop clothing factories in Bangladesh.
You forgot Pakistan, Thailand.
capitalism at work
Yesterday Bill Bonner stated that U.S taxpayers were taken advantage of by the Government TARP bailout in 2008, and Kevin Warsh was involved in the negotiations. Bill continues to promote an incorrect narrative. In reality TARP was simply a bridge loan from the taxpayers to the banking system. The loan was repaid in full and taxpayers received interest on the loan.
But wouldn't it have been preferable to let the Banksters go bankrupt to clean out the system and restart it? The Creative Destruction necessary for a successful capitalist economy. Instead the Fed kicked the can down the road by suppressing interest rates and printing money.
Do You not mean the government got the interest on the loan?
So now it’sTrumps fault for the population decline. How about blaming poor state government handling of infrastructure improvement, crime reduction, and safety of its citizens. That is one reason for Baltimore’s decline and there are many others. Economics also plays an important role but that is caused by many previous administrations. BB I wouldn’t want an elite like you to have a problem getting a reservation at a restaurant.
Yes the population is slowing. This is partly due to removing immigrants and partly due to young females and men who do not want chrildren. Today's young are not their parents of yesteryear and while not rejecting all their values, want a freer life style. So let's not blame Trump for all the negative reports that have other causes as well.
Do you blame the young for not wanting to have kids? With the "improvements" to our economy both parents have to work to support a family. I wouldn't have wanted to have kids either if my wife had had to go back to work. I look fondly back on my childhood when almost all my grade school classmates would walk home for lunch. I didn't know anyone whose mother worked.
No I do not blame the young. Times have changed. I also look back on my youth and wish the values and standards were still with us.
Cities can't afford to tear down houses that are not repairable. They continue to fall into further disrepair, become an eyesore or drug house or fire hazard. At least New Orleans cleaned out some of the homes lost to Katrina. Look at Italy, homes waiting for someone to move in. Parts of the U.S. will be like that with whole sections of a city being avoided. Dependance on federal money, either welfare or fraud will end as the government is broke. Bill has been trying for 50+ years to get Congress to wake up to no avail. I am not bright enough to see a way to correct this and am concerned that civil war may be the only way out.
Thanks for brightening my day, Bill.
Cynicism will get you my vote
I marvel at the mentally challenged MAGAts quick to throw the TDS moniker with nary a comment on the underlying point of the article-the $1,000,000,000,000 additional debt added in a quarter while making us “great again”.
Why not address the causes of the collapsing birth rate.
Sex without commitment to a marriage.
Easy no fault divorce.
Lesbians, sexual perversions;" I want to be a man" is the extreme end if this world view.
Welfare for single mothers.
Many boys spend the 1st 20 years of their lives being controlled by mothers, women teachers, and forced to act like little girls and have no successful male role models. An example is on the TV news every day, women politicians talking down to the public like they are talking to preschool kids.
Lack of valuing having children.
Changed education system to deliberately promote women against men, uni full of women who think via feminism that they must have a career and earn lots of money, so having a family is a burden not a joy or priority.
Lack of jobs for young men.
DEI for women and never for normal straight young men.
Limits/ rules/ red tape on house building so there is a shortage of affordable homes and vast numbers of immigrants, all of whom must live somewhere.
Abortion promoted.
Women must work and use child care rather than being encouraged and helped morally/ financially/ emotionally to want children.
Most of the parts of the country are now " managed" by women who want to control everything, rather than looking after their own home. Many women want a " partner" they can control rather than submitting to looking after a husband and caring for their children and old parents.
Godly values are not being taught but feminist ones are. Wok, the feminist disease.
Selfishness rather than self denial and self sacrifice to care for others.
" I don't need a boyfriend/ husband because I am a complete person on my own"
Hatred towards all men.
Lack of forgiveness, mental illness/ medication from following humanistic beliefs.
All these issues need to be addressed or the birth rate will never recover.
The 1950's are long gone sir. And I doubt they are coming back.