The human race promotes exceptionalism in myriad ways - via nationalism, religion, Klan affiliation, but mostly via Globalization. Globalization is the biggest superiority cult in human history without any relevant comparison. Ancient Rome had 60 million citizens. That's how many children die every decade globally from want of a few dollars worth of food and medicine. The cost of maximizing corporate profit. But there are more costs that have been ignored as well, on the one-way trip to maximum profit...
A true Ponzi scheme in every respect. Complete with ubiquitous morons who have no clue it's a Ponzi scheme...
Global GDP (black) growth with corporate earnings yield:
Well before 2008 monkey hammered the Global Ponzi scheme, it was highly evident that the developed world economy was turning into a game of musical chairs, in which one by one quality jobs were being removed, replaced by part-time low paying McJobs. It started all the way back in the 1980s with blue collar jobs but then hit white collar jobs after Y2K imploded. Nevertheless, the ultra-wealthy controlled the media and the message, so no surprise, the root issue was continuously ignored. Then along came 2008, after which it became evident that not withstanding the recovery of the U.S. casino, pretty much everything else was soon backsliding all over again. For the first time since World War II, global trade was growing slower than global GDP, which itself was slowing. All even more amazing when considered in the context of global Monetary and Fiscal stimulus on a scale dwarfing anything that had even been fantasized about in Bernankstein's wet dreams.
At that point, it was generally acknowledged, for anyone who could fog a mirror and wasn't otherwise watching Kardashians 24x7, that well Globalization wasn't going to work out as planned:
"Five years after the onset of the global financial crisis the world economy remains in a state of disarray with global output growing at about 2 percent and global trade grinding to a halt...Prior to the Great Recession, buoyant consumer demand in the developed countries seemed to justify the adoption of an export-oriented growth model by many developing and transition economies. But that expansion was built on unsustainable global demand and financing patterns. Thus, reverting to pre-crisis growth strategies cannot be an option. The Report notes that to adjust to what now appears to be a structural shift of the world economy, fundamental changes in prevailing growth strategies are needed."
This is global merchandise trade in absolute $USD with Global Dow in Gray:
But still, the apologists for Globalization ignored the warnings. They then invented the most recent narrative that China will transform from an export powerhouse into a consumption paradise complete with ready-made middle class. However, there was only one problem, minimum wage is still 1/10th of U.S. minimum wage and China has been losing out to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and now factory robots.
And yet despite all of these ongoing warnings, the cult of smug satisfaction prevailed, sponsored by fake exceptionalism. The entitled fake-belief that "we" will always be richer than "them", even though we borrow untold trillions from them to buy the things they make.
And therefore, to this very day, they all still think that cheap junk at Walmart, is cheap. And that is precisely how Globalized exceptionalism will be buried.
The elevator ride down to reality awaits.
The elevator ride down to reality awaits.
