Neither retail nor tourism are growth industries in the future of the U.S. economy.
The U.S. consumer is under assault from all sides: the value of the U.S. dollar is dropping dramatically, in part due to the unsustainable international trade deficit, the out-of-control U.S. budget deficit, and worst of all because of the over $9 trillion U.S. national debt, which has increased by well over 50% in the last six years.
Real income adjusted for inflation has been slipping for years. To compound the issue, as U.S. manufacturing jobs disappear overseas, all that are left are lower-paying “service” jobs.
U.S. consumers are facing the additional burden of out-of-control health insurance and health care costs, which are eating up more and more discretionary income. Add to this the increasing price of energy, which is a direct result of the drop in value of the U.S. dollar, and U.S. consumers are facing a “perfect storm” with no light on the horizon.
The U.S. economy is undergoing a fundamental shift which will forever reduce our standard of living. Expenditures which are not absolutely positively needed will out of necessity be reduced. People simply will not have money to waste on consumer goods and trips that they can no longer afford.
This is not fiction; these changes have already begun. As time goes on, it WILL get worse.
