The Fate of the US, Canada...and China?

US poverty map

I'd skimmed the New York Times article on the disappearing American middle class, but I didn't go back and read it carefully until I came across this summary:

Apple doesn't build iPhones in the United States, in other words, because there is no longer an ecosystem here to support that manufacturing. There's no supply chain, there aren't enough super-low-cost workers, and there are not enough mid-level engineers.  And many Americans looking for work are still hoping for a return to jobs, salaries, and lifestyles that have simply disappeared.

Uh oh. This might help to explain this Sunday's ominous statement from the Bank of Canada's Mark Carney:

It’s going to take a number of years before they get back to the U.S. that we used to know — in fact, they are not, in our opinion, ultimately going to get back to the U.S. that we used to know,” he said.

Hold that thought.

It reminded me of something unsettling I read a while back—a pensive piece authored by former Intel chairman Andy Grove:

I fled Hungary as a young man in 1956 to come to the U.S. Growing up in the Soviet bloc, I witnessed first-hand the perils of both government overreach and a stratified population. Most Americans probably aren't aware that there was a time in this country when tanks and cavalry were massed on Pennsylvania Avenue to chase away the unemployed. It was 1932; thousands of jobless veterans were demonstrating outside the White House. Soldiers with fixed bayonets and live ammunition moved in on them, and herded them away from the White House. In America! Unemployment is corrosive.

As I reflect on Carney's unsettling comment from yesterday, I worry about the future of the American middle class, not least because their well-being is intertwined with Canada's.

Sure, some U.S. real estate is becoming more affordable for well-off Canadians, but do the long-suffering citizens of Vancouver, BC really want to move to a country where the water in several large metro areas may already be running out?

And what about our erstwhile trading partner China, with its dangerously skewed demographic profile? Is it Canada's turn next?

At a Chinese New Year's banquet I attended last night, one of my dinner companions remarked that "something feels awfully off-balance in the world today."

Indeed.

The World Has Changed...Just a Bit

The "University" of Kalgary

I can't say it any better than Ezra Levant did — in serving notices of trespass to student members of Campus Pro-Life, the University of Calgary administration merits condemnation, not just from its alumni, but from everyone who believes that a university has a special duty to protect free speech and foster honest debate about controversial issues. As someone who grew up under the military dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, I still remember how one of my childhood friends was tortured and then murdered by that odious regime. Alas, Canada seems to be rapidly devolving towards a 21st-century tyranny of the morally relativistic Left, and this idiocy by the university administration is just more evidence of the accelerating suicide of the West. Today the police knock on doors of university students who are trying to raise awareness about a legitimate public policy issue. Tomorrow, what? Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. 

The US Election Just Got More Interesting

Some people think Sen. McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to woo Hillary Clinton supporters disenchanted with Sen. Obama's failure to name Sen. Clinton as his running mate. It's probably not that simple, but one can't help wondering if indeed gender was indeed a major issue in this case. Is the American public truly ready to accept a woman as its potential next president? Perhaps, perhaps not.

One thing is clear: the US Republican Party is trying to differentiate itself clearly from the Democrats on pro-life issues, and Gov. Palin's pro-life stance seems pretty obvious. For one thing, she said about her youngest child Trig, who was diagnosed in utero with Down Syndrome:

We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.

OK. Now if that doesn't bring into stark relief the difference between a pro-life and a pro-choice (really pro-death) position, I don't know what does. Regardless of your politics, the pro-death position is really no different in principle from the "useless eaters" philosophy that led to the Holocaust. And this should make us think carefully: what do "pro-choice" people really believe? That some human lives (e.g. theirs) are more valuable than others (in this case, unborn children). This should be clear. Don't let the arguments about "a woman's right to choose" fool you. A right to choose what, exactly? To kill her unborn child. In other words, murder.