ThirstyFish

...What it means to be an American in the year 2009.

OK. I admit I'm being unfair. This is not exclusively an American thing. It is more a man thing.

In a previous post, I had written about how They Don't Make Them Like They Used To, and how the retail trend in the United States was heading towards low quality products. Many cheap consumer products pushed by mega retailers like Walmart or IKEA are made in China.

On the high end consumer market, Americans have generally turned to European products like this Maserati or the numerous Mercedes and BMW cars that we see everywhere. What is disappearing is American Made consumer products. However, manufacturing is far from dead in the US; it has shifted to industrial and high technology markets such as aerospace, agricultural machinery, chemicals and telecommunications.

Education in the United States was at its peak in the 1950's and has been in a steady decline ever since. US ranks 20th in the Education Index and the decline is not only in attainment but also in quality. If trends continue, and we lose our edge in industrial, high technology manufacturing, there will not be many of us driving $150,000 supercars on six lane highways at 65mph.