|
The U.S. economy was the world’s
undisputed heavyweight champion from World War II into the 1960s. Almost everything
we produced found ready export markets, e.g. steel, cars, planes, and
construction equipment. Today, one new car in four Americans buy is
foreign. U.S. imports exceeded exports each year from 1982 through 2006. We
now import shiploads of oil and steel, many of our clothes, and most of our
shoes. Such facts dismay people who believe we are losing our ability to
compete in world markets.
First, ongoing
internationalization is one major explanation for concern that the United States
has lost its ability to compete. Almost all countries are both exporting
and importing record shares of their output and income – so most societies
have an increasingly international flavor, alarming traditionalists who
fear “foreign influence.”
Second, some countries’ exports
have grown faster than our exports, in part because changing comparative
advantages technologies and resource usage to adjust. Signs are emerging,
however, that rates of gain are shrinking for countries that played
“catch-up” in recent decades. For example, our average labor productivity
growth lagged behind that of Japan and parts of Western Europe during much of 1950--1980.
|
