Updating the Factors of Production

If you recall high school economics or college freshman economics (both were the same, colleges just made you pay extra to re-learn what you did in high school) there were "The Factors of Production."
These factors were essentially the ingredients you needed in order for a business or an individual to "produce" something.  There were originally three of them:

Land - you can produce nothing without at minimum some kind of office space.
Labor - the machines will not only not take over the world, they'll just sit there unless a human spends his or her time running them
Capital - Nobody is doing nothing until they get paid.  And that includes the people who produce the tools and machines you'll need to get started.

A fourth one was entered as they realized even with the above three, nothing would get produced.  You needed a leader.  An innovator.  A man with the plan.

The entrepreneur.

Since there it was commonly accepted that there are three original, but most likely four real factors of production.

However, I would like to tender a fifth.

I'm doing this not to make things more complicated or to somehow be enshrined in the Economics Hall of Fame, but because our economy today practically proves there is a fifth and final factor of production that is required to produce, but is not accounted for in the current list.  That fifth component is:

A future.

Some would call it "political" or "economic certainty."  I'm calling it a future simply because if there is no hope an economy will be stable, MORE SO that you will be able to keep the majority of your gains, then you can have;

Land
Labor
Capital
and an entrepreneur raring to go

nobody's producing nuthin' if (oh, I don't know)

the government is racking up debts that literally call into question the integrity and viability of the future economy

the government is spending so much that it's a guarantee tax rates will go through the roof in the future

the people are so anti-business, anti-capitalism, anti-rich, anti-success that you're afraid they'll simply vote to take the fruits of your hard labor away.

I could go into more detail, but the point is simple enough.  You see it not just in the economy (companies are sitting on trillions in capital, people are DESPERATE for jobs, enterprenuers can't wait to jump ship and move to Singapore...ooops, I mean...start businesses), but in the housing market (nobody new entrants in the market want to buy....well nobody can AFFORD to buy), and the stock market (the same).

It won't be until there are guarantees enshrined via constitutional amendments that the government cannot confiscate/tax beyond a certain level and that private individuals property and income rights are maintained, that you will get people to start investing in the US again.  And so you can go ahead and come up with all the Keynesian stimulus you want.  The vast majority of the United States' economic strength will remain dormant, or just outright afraid.

Enjoy the decline!