The US: The World's Biggest Producer of its Most Important Commodity

One of my favorite writers in the 1980s was John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends and several other forward thinking books. In Megatrends I became introduced to the idea that the economy was shifting from the industrial age to the information age. Today, the big complaint of Americans -- particularly older ones -- is that the US doesn't produce anything. No, we have largely left the production of the things we hold, sell, buy, etc. to developing economies that are making those things for us.

In spite of this, the US enjoys among the world's lowest unemployment, continued economic expansion, and per capita incomes that are the world's envy. How has this happened? Because the US is now the world's biggest producer of information. Information is the commodity that makes deals get done, information provides the road map to a more prosperous future, and information is what makes the US the leading economy in the world.

Instead of creating a horror story of huge unemployment because of the jobs we export to developing countries, the information age is only changing the nature of employment in this country. The information age fueled the rise of self check outs that has eliminated low wage jobs at the store, but has created high wage jobs for the people who repair them. Meanwhile, we as consumers pay less for goods because this scenario reduces the costs to the store because the occasional repair is cheaper than the on going checking out.

As long as the US remains a market leader in information, this economy should only continue to grow and prosper. I believe and remain convinced that our best days are yet to come.