Do We Neeed More Proof that Dictators are Bad for the Economy?

When dictators make bad decisions no one can stop them. Here are a few:

• Trump likes oil, so we’re doing everything possible to push fossil fuels in the economy, and eliminating anything to support sustainable energy. We are even so petty as to take out installed car charging stations for government employees. So we’ve pegged our economy and everything in it to fossil fuels, a future that is going away — not tomorrow but necessarily soon, whether we like it or not. We’re not just a non-player in the coming economy (presumably the US auto manufacturers will be lucky if they’re picked up — instead of closed down — by the dominant Chinese players), we’re tying a weight around the neck of all our industrial production.
• We’re killing any kind of government supported research. We have made ourselves non-players in anything beyond current mainstream production. If you ask business leaders how much basic research is done by the private sector they will tell you the answer is pretty much none. Business deals with current and coming product. We as a country will no longer be inventing the future. We can ask the Chinese for help when we need it.
• We have decided there is no need for competence in government employees. Instead for the entire federal government all that matters in loyalty. There are no more real government jobs — just political appointees. If these are the rules of the game, there will be no more competence or help from Washington. If you don’t think that matters you should look at the mess today. That’s the tiniest piece of what is coming.
• We have decided to convert all of our alliances to protection rackets. Unfortunately we’re not the only game in town. We have opponents in China and Russia. They, not us, have understood there is strength in numbers. We have given them an enormous present with no positives in return. For Russia we have even descended to flattery.
• Our now to be jettisoned international order was established to provide stability and reduce the danger of war. It wasn’t perfect but it gave us many years of growth and peace. The danger to growth has been much talked about, but the danger to peace less so. In this new era of every land for itself, all efforts to manage nuclear proliferation are now out the window. On the contrary, every country had better get its own nuclear weapons fast — or be prepared to face defeat. In our glorification of selfish greed we’re stupidly asking for disaster.

Many people have figured out these are mistakes. But as long as this dictatorship continues, we as a nation we have no way to fix it.

Originally published at http://ontheoutside.blog on February 24, 2025.