When America Is #3

Visual Capitalist has produced a chart predicting that America will have the third largest economy (after China and India), by 2030.

There are lots of assumptions that go into these things, of course, but it’s a reasonable assumption based on population sizes, birth rates, growth rates and population age.

If we assume this is true, what does it mean for those of us in the aging west, and how to we prepare?  Some questions:

How will your job or business be impacted when the US cannot dictate the terms of trade to our largest trading partners?

What will competition for your job or business look like when Asia floods our market with folks willing to work twice as hard for half the price (think of what Latinos have done to agriculture and lawn care, but now across the workforce, from welders to CEOs)?

How will your income be affected when the US can no longer issue debt at will and taxes skyrocket and services end?

What will your retirement planning look like if property values stagnate and the stock market loses 50% of its value?

How will you support your family when the Feds print money at will and inflation reduces your purchasing power by 50%?

What will you do when automation (robots and their software brains) replace the core responsibilities of your job (or your boss)?

There are answers to these questions, and there are tremendous opportunities.  Make sure you have a plan that works when times are tough.

Chart: The World’s Largest 10 Economies in 2030

Be Smart: Embrace Change

The retail industry is undergoing dramatic change. This is a lesson for you and I:

1. You are not static, you were not born into a static world, you have no right to live in a perpetually unchanging existence. Why would you want to, anyway? In business and technology, embrace change. Don’t rage against it.

2. Position yourself in such a way that you benefit from the change you see and the change you expect. This needs to be a very conscious state of mind. The notion that you can ‘get a job’ and then ‘work hard’ and deserve to be employed at the same place for as long as you want is an unreasonable expectation-it’s “I deserve” instead of “I serve” way of thinking.

3.  When you encounter obstacles, challenges or treatment you think is ‘unfair’, resist the temptation towards victim-thinking, and instead accept the reality and look for the opportunity created by that challenge.