Yeah, but the problem is that the rest of the world is not currently blown to smithereens and in need of American labor and capital to rebuild it the way it was in 1945 (not to mention deeply indebted to the United States as well). The trough of that graph is about the point where Western Europe and Japan managed to rebuild their economies to the point where they could actually compete effectively. The United States has no such competitive advantage at this point.
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Before one gets hysterical, consider debt as a function of GDP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt
Yeah, but the problem is that the rest of the world is not currently blown to smithereens and in need of American labor and capital to rebuild it the way it was in 1945 (not to mention deeply indebted to the United States as well). The trough of that graph is about the point where Western Europe and Japan managed to rebuild their economies to the point where they could actually compete effectively. The United States has no such competitive advantage at this point.
So where is all the US output going?