05-19-2013, 10:25 PM
It is fairly curious to assume that Western economies can only grow at 1.25% a year (although this figure might vary from country to country) as there is little evidence productivity growth (produced by the implementation of technological and organizational change) is slowing down.
Adding to that, the rest of the world is experiencing a bit of a boom, large swaths of formerly very poor countries are pulling themselves out of poverty by the bootstraps. While this has some negative effects on the developed world (greater competition for resources), overall, the effect is clearly positive as trade is not a zero-sum game, the rise of the likes of China also provides the West with more opportunities to sell to them.
Adding to that, the rest of the world is experiencing a bit of a boom, large swaths of formerly very poor countries are pulling themselves out of poverty by the bootstraps. While this has some negative effects on the developed world (greater competition for resources), overall, the effect is clearly positive as trade is not a zero-sum game, the rise of the likes of China also provides the West with more opportunities to sell to them.