Is It Possible To Make America Great Again?

 
Trump’s big election promise, or slogan, was to “Make America Great Again.” Is that possible?
 
Sure, for some people. If you are unemployed, and something Trump does gets you a job, then according to you, then he’s done his job. But what about measuring in the aggregate? For the majority? How does one measure “greatness” anyway?
 
As you can see from the graph below, perhaps the “great period” was during the greatest growth of GDP. When the economy was expanding the fastest.
 

 

 
According to the graph above, this has been declining (GDP Growth) ever since the mid sixties. So, if the idea is to take us back to the growth of the sixties, one would suppose you need to recreate the conditions of the sixties, at least economically.
 
However, this isn’t so easy. They “glory days” of the American Economy were shortly after world war two. One blue collar income could support a family.
 
Is that possible today?
 
What were the global conditions back in the U.S. economy after World War II and up to the sixties, when things started declining?
 
For one, all of the factories were in the United States, as all of the other ones had been destroyed by the war.
 
For another, the U.S. was a creditor nation. Basically lending money to other countries to buy stuff that was made in America.
 
Today, the opposite is true. Most of actual stuff is made outside of the United States. And the U.S. doesn’t loan money to anybody. The U.S. has more debt than ever.
 
So, what would have to happen to “make America great again?”
 
Destroy all of the other factories in the world, and bring back manufacturing to the United States?
 
Cancel all of our debt, and start fresh?
 
What would happen if the U.S. defaulted on it’s debt? Considering that the U.S. Treasuries are the rock that the global economy is built upon, if the U.S. defaulted on ANY of it’s debt, the entire world economy would collapse.
 
So, in order to get from where we are now, to where we were back in the fifties, a lot of things would have to happen.
 
The U.S. would have to default on all its debt. This could cause a massive collapse of the global economy, which is based on a “Just In Time” delivery system.
 
This means a lot of people would have to buy food produced locally. And for many, since there simply ISN’T enough food produced locally to feed even a small percentage of the population, many would die.
 
So, is it really possible to “make America great again?”
 
Maybe, but the time between now, and then, if it were to come, would be long and deadly for most people. Perhaps a generation or longer.
 
Can that happen within a four or eight year presidential period? Doubtful.
 
What is likely to happen?
 
More debt, more government spending on infrastructure, and more people needing to work or in some way depend on the government for their existence.
 
Which is fine, so long as the United States government can print enough money to pay for everything without kicking off hyperinflation, but that is another story.