[harryh]

I'm skeptical that you've identified the primary problem in the US economy. I would definitely rank two things higher:

1) Challenges that come about due to an aging population

2) An overall slow down in innovation (Cowen's "Great Stagnation" hypothesis)

[fjjrxcbdhx]

An unbalanced young-old demographic ratio is indicative of worsening economic conditions for average people. Looking at Japan, they have a population crisis because there's no time to start a family when you have lots of mandatory unpaid overtime. Thankfully we're not quite that far gone yet, but we're headed in that direction and are starting to face similar demographic problems.

Innovation is slowing down because companies are preoccupied with irrationally slashing labor expenses, and R&D tends to be quite expensive so it gets cut significantly. The result is less income for consumers, who in turn buy fewer goods, which ultimately leads to even more cuts for labor.