That's an eye-opening perspective! I've been a big supporter of the socialist dem's, but you're right - even they are not talking about physically rebuilding what we've failed to do for so long. As you'ver pointed out, Corbin, lots of money chasing dwindling supplies merely raises the price of those supplies. Explains a lot, I think.
Thank you for your philosophy of Democrats taxing the rich, taxing the rich, taxing the rich, which is the only idea Democrats have in order to hire millions of government employees to collapse capitalism. Thanks to your philosophy embraced overseas a millionaire leaves Great Britain every 45 minutes. Does a millionaire leave California every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Does a Millionaire leave New York City and State every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Does a millionaire leave Illinois every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Does a millionaire leave Massachusetts every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Etc. Enquirer minds want to know. W. Manion, MDPhDJDMBA
Seems to me that a smart politician/party could gain a lot of traction and solve several problems at once with a 4-word platform: Universal Free Vocational Education.
Socialists advocate for free quality education for all, including the DSA.
Socialists (maybe not DSA leadership, but plenty within DSA and others outside of it) advocate for a centrally planned economy, which is the main reason why China has been able to outperform us.
I like the crux of this article, but I think it could afford to dive deeper into socialist policy to interrogate the claim being made.
This problem of *production* is exactly what the late Professor Seymour Melman was talking about since the 1960s, emphasizing it more and more into the 90s. Melman claimed that the 'ruling class', as it were, had thought they had solved what he called 'the problem of production', that is, the question of how a society produces the goods and services it needs to thrive. In fact, in his book 'The Demilitarized Society', he argues that the United States has gone past 'the point of no return' (this was written in the 1980s), because the industrial machinery sector had declined badly (you can get the book from https://archive.org/details/demilitarizedsoc0000melm). We needed to import engineers from around the world, he argued, which would now mean from China, Japan, Korea, Germany, etc. to train up a competent skilled labor corps, engineers, and operational managers (NOT middle managers). Other of his writings are viewable at SeymourMelman.com
I think there is more than one piece missing. Trained labor, from skilled users of hammers to high quality engineers, are a major piece. Another piece are abundant natural resources. We have drawn them down to a point where finding sources is extremely difficult and expensive to extract, causing more environmental harm. The single most important piece, healthy ecosystems, are also in global decline. To reverse the ill-health of ecosystems will require a world willing to live with far less energy and stuff (as in "The story of Stuff"). Yes, solar and wind can power the future, but they cannot power everything we now expect in the same way. Societies have to change, from Andorra to Zimbabwe. The US has to change most of all in part because our false abundance, extreme divergence of wealth and proliferation of weapons, makes us extremely fragile. We are in for a bumpy ride even with the best of politicians in charge.
I found myself agreeing that much of our political conversation revolves around distribution while often taking productive capacity for granted. Yet as I was reading, I kept wondering about the foundations of that capacity itself.
When we talk about building, what role do healthy ecosystems play? What happens when economic growth comes at the expense of the natural systems that make all production possible in the first place? And how do we balance the need to build with the need to steward what sustains us?
Perhaps capacity is broader than factories, infrastructure, and labor. Perhaps it also includes the health of our communities, our institutions, and the ecological systems upon which all economies ultimately depend.
Thank you for a thought-provoking piece. It left me with more questions than answers, which I suspect is part of its value.
I also think that we have to have a “WE” vision. Relying exclusively on the market has lead us to this point. We need to be clear that us, together, have to have a vision that includes structured, comprehensive plan for infrastructure and health care and housing and more we have to have a vision that includes all of us - not just that will make investors money.
Hugely important post for everyone to digest. We decided to give everything away because it became all about profit for our corporations and to fund our 401ks. If we are going to get back to a place that works, we need a fundamental restart that our present crop of politicians cannot and will not admit to themselves. It will take a 1917 revolution to actually change anything. Our system and technology will not allow that to happen.
Yes. I love what Corbin is saying, and I've been reading every post of his for two years. But attempts at building a movement have stalled. The Abundance folks have Adelson money, Sulzberger money, and Lauren Jobs money. "America's Undoing" has a Substack. However, there is a Productivism movement, headed by Economist Dani Rodrick at Harvard's Kennedy School. Rodrick preaches industrial capacity combined with specific implementation. Corbin, are you aware of him? https://drodrik.scholars.harvard.edu/
I'm old enough to remember when America worked. When moms, if they wanted to, were homemakers and dad's were the breadwinners. When if you were old enough to work, you could always find it. When houses and roads and factories were being built instead of boarded over. When a single paycheck family could easily buy a home raise a family even send the kids to college if that's what they wanted to do.. When the government wasn't afraid to build things like hospitals, dams, roads, buildings, and more. When people were taxed based on their ability to pay.
But then things changed.
Politician’s focus changed from the people to the donors who paid to get them elected. Amassing wealth became more important than equitably distributing it, and the majority of wealth was sucked out at the bottom straight to the top when the Rich no longer paid their fair share in taxes, and it's only been getting worse.. We stopped fighting the fight worth having and government caved to the whims of those with the most leaving the rest of us to watch what wealth we had disappear.
Americans are starting to realize we need to get back into the fight, but where is the leadership to make that happen? This Substack is the only one I know that's asking the right questions.
Hoping Graham Platner will have you as a close consultant after we put him in the Senate here in Maine. Your analyses are the perfect fit for the movement he plans to take to DC. My ongoing concern though is the question of Earth's capacity and the haunting reality that natural systems have already exceeded their limits. Would be interested in your take.
The USA has incurred a trillion-dollar disaster in the form of unpaid and unpayable student loans paid or incurred for college degrees, 90% of which are utterly worthless. The jobs which the debtors sought will be destroyed by AI long before any meaningful amortization can be paid. The money should have been spent for apprenticeships in trades and for keeping industry here, not shipping it to China. We sold our industrial base and skillsets in a misguided attempt to stave off communism, and ended up enriching Chinese communists.
As usual, a great perspective from Corbin Trent. Also as usual, the elephant in the room completely ignored. What elephant? You ask.
The elephant that is the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC) that is devouring all the resources that will be needed for the restoration for which Corbin Trent is calling, not to mention that the MIC is, by far, the single worst polluter on the planet. Until that dragon is slain, everything advocated by Corbin Trent is a pipe dream.
Stop ignoring this blatantly obvious truth, Corbin. The restoration for which you advocate so eloquently will be impossible to realize until the MIC is brought to bay.
That's an eye-opening perspective! I've been a big supporter of the socialist dem's, but you're right - even they are not talking about physically rebuilding what we've failed to do for so long. As you'ver pointed out, Corbin, lots of money chasing dwindling supplies merely raises the price of those supplies. Explains a lot, I think.
Dear Mr. Trent,
Thank you for your philosophy of Democrats taxing the rich, taxing the rich, taxing the rich, which is the only idea Democrats have in order to hire millions of government employees to collapse capitalism. Thanks to your philosophy embraced overseas a millionaire leaves Great Britain every 45 minutes. Does a millionaire leave California every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Does a Millionaire leave New York City and State every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Does a millionaire leave Illinois every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Does a millionaire leave Massachusetts every 45 minutes or every 45 seconds? Etc. Enquirer minds want to know. W. Manion, MDPhDJDMBA
You left the letters BS out of your title.
Thank you for your concern. My Bachelor of Science or BS is in Biology. Thank you again for correcting me. W. Manion, BSMDPhDJDMBA
Seems to me that a smart politician/party could gain a lot of traction and solve several problems at once with a 4-word platform: Universal Free Vocational Education.
Socialists advocate for free quality education for all, including the DSA.
Socialists (maybe not DSA leadership, but plenty within DSA and others outside of it) advocate for a centrally planned economy, which is the main reason why China has been able to outperform us.
I like the crux of this article, but I think it could afford to dive deeper into socialist policy to interrogate the claim being made.
Corbin,
This problem of *production* is exactly what the late Professor Seymour Melman was talking about since the 1960s, emphasizing it more and more into the 90s. Melman claimed that the 'ruling class', as it were, had thought they had solved what he called 'the problem of production', that is, the question of how a society produces the goods and services it needs to thrive. In fact, in his book 'The Demilitarized Society', he argues that the United States has gone past 'the point of no return' (this was written in the 1980s), because the industrial machinery sector had declined badly (you can get the book from https://archive.org/details/demilitarizedsoc0000melm). We needed to import engineers from around the world, he argued, which would now mean from China, Japan, Korea, Germany, etc. to train up a competent skilled labor corps, engineers, and operational managers (NOT middle managers). Other of his writings are viewable at SeymourMelman.com
I think there is more than one piece missing. Trained labor, from skilled users of hammers to high quality engineers, are a major piece. Another piece are abundant natural resources. We have drawn them down to a point where finding sources is extremely difficult and expensive to extract, causing more environmental harm. The single most important piece, healthy ecosystems, are also in global decline. To reverse the ill-health of ecosystems will require a world willing to live with far less energy and stuff (as in "The story of Stuff"). Yes, solar and wind can power the future, but they cannot power everything we now expect in the same way. Societies have to change, from Andorra to Zimbabwe. The US has to change most of all in part because our false abundance, extreme divergence of wealth and proliferation of weapons, makes us extremely fragile. We are in for a bumpy ride even with the best of politicians in charge.
Hello Wayne... On a finite Planet, only two types of People believe in Infinite Growth, Lunatics, and Economists...
This gave me a lot to think about.
I found myself agreeing that much of our political conversation revolves around distribution while often taking productive capacity for granted. Yet as I was reading, I kept wondering about the foundations of that capacity itself.
When we talk about building, what role do healthy ecosystems play? What happens when economic growth comes at the expense of the natural systems that make all production possible in the first place? And how do we balance the need to build with the need to steward what sustains us?
Perhaps capacity is broader than factories, infrastructure, and labor. Perhaps it also includes the health of our communities, our institutions, and the ecological systems upon which all economies ultimately depend.
Thank you for a thought-provoking piece. It left me with more questions than answers, which I suspect is part of its value.
I also think that we have to have a “WE” vision. Relying exclusively on the market has lead us to this point. We need to be clear that us, together, have to have a vision that includes structured, comprehensive plan for infrastructure and health care and housing and more we have to have a vision that includes all of us - not just that will make investors money.
GreenNewDealPlan.com is my attempt, if you'd like to take a look...
Looks great!
Thanks!
Production missing
Hugely important post for everyone to digest. We decided to give everything away because it became all about profit for our corporations and to fund our 401ks. If we are going to get back to a place that works, we need a fundamental restart that our present crop of politicians cannot and will not admit to themselves. It will take a 1917 revolution to actually change anything. Our system and technology will not allow that to happen.
Yes. I love what Corbin is saying, and I've been reading every post of his for two years. But attempts at building a movement have stalled. The Abundance folks have Adelson money, Sulzberger money, and Lauren Jobs money. "America's Undoing" has a Substack. However, there is a Productivism movement, headed by Economist Dani Rodrick at Harvard's Kennedy School. Rodrick preaches industrial capacity combined with specific implementation. Corbin, are you aware of him? https://drodrik.scholars.harvard.edu/
I'm old enough to remember when America worked. When moms, if they wanted to, were homemakers and dad's were the breadwinners. When if you were old enough to work, you could always find it. When houses and roads and factories were being built instead of boarded over. When a single paycheck family could easily buy a home raise a family even send the kids to college if that's what they wanted to do.. When the government wasn't afraid to build things like hospitals, dams, roads, buildings, and more. When people were taxed based on their ability to pay.
But then things changed.
Politician’s focus changed from the people to the donors who paid to get them elected. Amassing wealth became more important than equitably distributing it, and the majority of wealth was sucked out at the bottom straight to the top when the Rich no longer paid their fair share in taxes, and it's only been getting worse.. We stopped fighting the fight worth having and government caved to the whims of those with the most leaving the rest of us to watch what wealth we had disappear.
Americans are starting to realize we need to get back into the fight, but where is the leadership to make that happen? This Substack is the only one I know that's asking the right questions.
Hoping Graham Platner will have you as a close consultant after we put him in the Senate here in Maine. Your analyses are the perfect fit for the movement he plans to take to DC. My ongoing concern though is the question of Earth's capacity and the haunting reality that natural systems have already exceeded their limits. Would be interested in your take.
The USA has incurred a trillion-dollar disaster in the form of unpaid and unpayable student loans paid or incurred for college degrees, 90% of which are utterly worthless. The jobs which the debtors sought will be destroyed by AI long before any meaningful amortization can be paid. The money should have been spent for apprenticeships in trades and for keeping industry here, not shipping it to China. We sold our industrial base and skillsets in a misguided attempt to stave off communism, and ended up enriching Chinese communists.
Sounds like you should join your local DSA chapter and help shape history!
Hello Corbin... Nice Thoughtful Piece.... However, are the Natural Systems reaching their limits?...
We’re already beyond those limits; we’re sitting at 1.75 planets, resource wise, to sustain current consumption.
Yes, overshoot seems to have disappeared from the conversation in so many spaces--dismaying, to be polite about it.
Hello Grethen... Man Proposes... The Creator Disposes....
As usual, a great perspective from Corbin Trent. Also as usual, the elephant in the room completely ignored. What elephant? You ask.
The elephant that is the Military-Industrial-Complex (MIC) that is devouring all the resources that will be needed for the restoration for which Corbin Trent is calling, not to mention that the MIC is, by far, the single worst polluter on the planet. Until that dragon is slain, everything advocated by Corbin Trent is a pipe dream.
Stop ignoring this blatantly obvious truth, Corbin. The restoration for which you advocate so eloquently will be impossible to realize until the MIC is brought to bay.
JHORTONPHD@GMAIL.COM
There is quite a bit of overlap between what you write about what Strong Towns talks about. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2026-1-5-transportation-after-the-age-of-expansion