Farmer Seed Corn Example:

How do we get sustainable growth?

Think of it as the simple case of a farmer growing his own corn. He knows he needs to save 10% of his crop so he has enough seed to plant for the next season.

One farmer (say China) wants to increase production each year, so he saves 15% of his corn crop. Thus, each year his harvest grows. Another farmer (read: US, unions like the UAW) just gets hungry and can't control himself. He had a big farm so a little less production isn't such a big deal. So he starts to only save 8% of his corn each year.

As obvious (read: capitalism), the first farmer (read: China) sees his production growing every year. But it may still be less than the other farmer (read: US) because he started with much less.

But, you can see where this is going. And, bingo, this is just what you read about everyday.

And, Obama and the Dems (it was the Republicans too when they were in charge) don't want to tell various constituencies (read: special interest groups) that they are taking too much seed corn. And, the best way to mask it is to have people believe things are good (read: credit bubble, housing bubble. Now read: huge social expenditure deficits and union payoffs in the car industry).