Net New Investment
Gross investment is all the money you put toward productive projects, whether they are start-ups or ongoing enterprises looking to expand. Gross investment includes money spent on upkeep of facilities and machinery (capital), tangible property which steadily depreciates with wear-and-tear over time.
If you subtract all investment which was gobbled up by the upkeep of already-existing capital, you have net new investment--money which can go to new things--money which can actually expand the economy. The proportion of money which represents net new investment, divided by the total money invested, gives you an idea about the proportion of money gobbled up for the purpose of upkeep.
In a healthy economy, more than a third of all investment represents net new investment--investment which expands the economy. This was true of the quarter-century from 1948-1974:
However, ever since 2007, the net new investment in the US has been less than a third of all investment, indicating that, either the vast majority of all investment is being gobbled up in order to offset a ramped-up depreciation of US capital, or the US is investing less in itself over time.
A good fraction of GDP for net new investment would be net new investment which exceeds 6% of GDP--as was true for the 40 years from 1950-1990. However, for the decade from 2008-2018, net new investment was only 5% of GDP or below:
This means we are investing less in expanding our own economy--though the depreciation rate may have also increased for the same basic reason that we are also investing less (an unprecedented loss of economic freedom in the US).
When there is less economic freedom, there is less productive efficiency and we cannot make as much stuff at the same rate as before, and we cannot make it with the same minimal losses due to operating costs (as we could before). When we cannot make as much stuff as before, and when we cannot make it as cheaply as before, then we have less surplus (less savings).
Like net new investments, a good amount of net savings (savings which can be used in order to expand, rather than merely to perform upkeep on existing capital) is over 6% of GDP--like we had for the third-century from 1946-1981:
However, ever since 2001, savings available for economic expansion has not even been as high as 5% of GDP, showing that--due to lost economic freedom--we are currently a country in steady decline (things are getting worse each year).
A better alternative would be for us to restore the economic freedom of the past, so that we could reap the benefits of unleashing our creative and productive potential.
Reference
[1] U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Net domestic investment [W171RC1A027NBEA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W171RC1A027NBEA
[2] U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Gross domestic investment [W170RC1A027NBEA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W170RC1A027NBEA
[3] U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Net saving [W201RC1A027NBEA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W201RC1A027NBEA
[4] U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Gross Domestic Product [GDPA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPA