I would be curious what our GDP would look like if we got this industry under control.

Thanks for your comment. I’ll try to elaborate on what I meant.

I do agree with you that higher private consumption can help businesses become more profitable, driving the economy upward. However, in the US, throughout the long economic growth period of the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s, private consumption in the US has inched higher and higher, becoming a bigger piece of the GDP pie (a little over two-thirds now). One of the biggest problems with this trend is the growing trade deficit. Since the mid 1980s, the US has continued to accumulate deficit in tradeable goods, especially with Asian countries like China and Japan. These countries now hold large sums of US debt that has funded the consumption. Countries with a higher savings rate (Canada, Japan, China) tend to have trade surpluses. Many economists believe that GDP and employment can be dragged down by a large deficit in the long run.

Thus I’m advocating for a rebalancing of the GDP pie, where the majority of growth is not driven by private consumption, but by investments and exports.

A rebalancing away from consumption could help sustain a more long-term recovery.

I’m somewhat confused on your analysis of the private consumption of the US. It seems that you say it’s bad that private consumption is such a high portion of GDP but don’t necessarily specify why or what affect that percentage has on our recovery.

If you think that private consumption is a bad sign for recover, I have to disagree. Right now what our economy needs most in an increase in consumption, preferably private (although government seems to be the only real options) so business becomes more profitable and can begun running at full capacity again, thus rehiring more workers and fixing our unemployment woes.