Interesting but there isn't necessarily a hard link between lack of growth and these issues.
The West has a demographic problem, that could be hitting hard and I'm not saying it explains everything, but it's a significant enough issue that it could basically be the whole thing.
China is selling us a ton of stuff very cheaply, which reducees jobs and profits in the West, but does provide surpluses that we don't measure. I mean, just look at photos from 30 years ago: we have way more selection of clothes, electronics. We love our apps and mobile phones. Those are distinctly valuable, but not very profitible on the books.
Definitely there has been a lack of growth and foundation of new industry, and that should be a concern.
For those wondering, GDP matters because wealth tends to make a lot of problems go away. Go to a poor country - they have garbage healthcare because they can't afford it it's that simple. Obviously money is not everything but it's definitely a thing.
Buying a ton of stuff from China isn't necessarily a bad thing. It depends on the details. Things like specialization can be beneficial for everyone.
And the demographics in China are arguably more challenging than in the US (and the US is probably better positioned to address the challenges via immigration).
Our #1 'economics' problems is that we do not measure 'consumer surplus'.
If everything all of a sudden cost 1 cent to buy, the GDP would disappear, but the value to each of us would be immense assuming we could figure out a way to divide the surpluses evenly without a war.
Consumer surplus is variable, each of us 'values' things in different ways, but still, it should be on the books.
Inflation measures try to accommodate for that (aka stuff getting better) but it's hard.
My god man, I remember 'before Walmart was everywhere' and you just could not buy 'stuff'.
I remember in the 90's going to a big Walmart and thinking: "I could buy everything I ever needed here" if I didn't care about brand, keeping up with the Jonses. I don't think young people realize how revolutionary it is that we live with a super abundance of stuff. Particularly for working class people, it's changed everything.
We live in an age of material abundance - and now arguably over abundance (a different kind of surplus), and much of our problems are derived from that and how we align our finances.
We have to deal with the real estate problem, and, the massive increase in healthcare. Healthcare will be 40% of the economy in 25 years.
We collectively spend a lot of time staring at them, for sure. That the best paid minds of our time have set themselves to finding ways to "improve engagement" endlessly in various ways and dark patterns probably has a lot to do with that, and I'm far from certain that it's good for human... anything, really. Health, sanity, happiness, the works. We've been told that "social media" (which is what a lot of the staring at phone involves) connects us, but study after study demonstrates the exact opposite - that it atomizes us and alienates us, with plenty of follow on impacts on happiness, contentedness, etc. It's a great gig, make people unhappy and then sell their eyeballs to people who want to the sell them the solutions to that problem, but let's not pretend it's more than just seeking more money.
There is certainly a range of things that can be done with more money to spend on a society, but American healthcare being "staggeringly expensive" doesn't also mean it's "the best."
The West has a demographic problem, that could be hitting hard and I'm not saying it explains everything, but it's a significant enough issue that it could basically be the whole thing.
China is selling us a ton of stuff very cheaply, which reducees jobs and profits in the West, but does provide surpluses that we don't measure. I mean, just look at photos from 30 years ago: we have way more selection of clothes, electronics. We love our apps and mobile phones. Those are distinctly valuable, but not very profitible on the books.
Definitely there has been a lack of growth and foundation of new industry, and that should be a concern.
For those wondering, GDP matters because wealth tends to make a lot of problems go away. Go to a poor country - they have garbage healthcare because they can't afford it it's that simple. Obviously money is not everything but it's definitely a thing.