Economic individualism as espoused by capitalist dogma is well fitted for the sale of individual products sold to individual consumers, but it is not well suited for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure that underlies the individualist, capitalist economic systems. The manufacture and sale of products to consumers, upon which is based 70% of the US GDP, rests upon an adequate infrastructure which private enterprise in and of itself does nothing to maintain or expand or modernize. Infrastructure maintenance and developement must be undertaken collectively, i.e., by societies through their governments.
The expansion of the railroads under the direct government involvement of President Lincoln and the development of the interstate highway system, a Federal government project under President Eisenhauer, are two good examples. Whole towns and cities came into being along the railways as they expanded across the continent. Shopping malls and housing tracts came into being as a result of the interstate highway system. Practically every on and off ramp saw commercial developments spring up. This never would have happened had it not been for government providing the infrastructure.
Right now the biggest challenge is not the sale of products to individual consumers who are already up to their eyeballs in debt and stuffed to the gills with consumer products. The biggest challenge is infrastructure maintenanece, rebuilding, upgrading and development. And the biggest infrastructure of all, the planet Earth, is much in need of attention. So rather than trying to get consumers to buy more stuff, US economists should really be addressing the question, "How do we build infrastructure and bring the planet into balance?" Earth is getting undeniably warmer. It's not something that's going to happen 50 years from now. The disastrous effects of global warming are happenening right now with temperatures over 100 degrees coming to be normal in many areas. Wildfires such as those burning much of Russia are becoming increasingly common and flash flooding such as that in Pakistan is ruining many parts of the world causing severe human misery and economic loss. And we're still spewing many tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a daily basis.
Individualist economics can no longer meet the demands and fill the needs of human beings in the 21st century. National and world leaders should see how ridiculous it is just to try and get their citizens to consume more products as if that is all that is necessary to get the economy humming again. Countries such as China where the government is striking a balance between individualist and collective prerogatives have a better chance of economic development which will both satisfy consumer needs and demands and also save the planet. Continuing on a mad rush of development motivated by individualist greed will only lead to a planet which is becoming increasingly uninhabitable at least for those who happen to live in the path of destruction and devastation due to flash flooding, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural and man made disasters.
In addition to depending on infrastructure which they don't create or pay for, corporate interests export their waste products into the environment leaving it for others to clean them up. Part of infrastructure development has to be cleaning up the externalities of corporations who profit from dumping their wastes into the environment whether it is rivers, oceans or the atmosphere. So the pursuit of increasing GDP at all costs produces an environment which is increasingly unsuitable for human or any other life. Without the intervention of government acting in the interests of all its citizens and even all of humanity, corporations will continue to seek their self interest and add to their bottom line by shoving off the costs of cleaning up the environment on others.
This is where an industrial policy comes in. Industrial policy sets the stage for economic development but guides it along lines that are beneficial for the society as a whole and, hopefully, for the earth as a whole. Governments like the US which don't have an industrial policy are left to deal with the unsavory effects of individual greed driven economics on a piecemeal basis. Corporations whose only allegiance is to the bottom line have a definite self interest in evading any consideration of the environment unless they are forced to do so. That's why they lobby against goverrnment regulation or direction and want the government to take an entirely hands off approach. They don't want government interfering in the economic arena because that would cost them money. Due to lobbying, undertaxation and lack of an industrial policy the US, despite its huge military apparatus, is essentially a weak nation when it comes to economic development that is in harmony with the environment. The fact that it borrows billions of dollars every day from countries like China puts it in a weaker position still.
