Posted on 07/09/2005 10:01:50 AM PDT by Willie Green
ping
Something wrong with this statement.
Ross, is that you?
What's the big deal 'bout that? They're merely paper IOUs. Heck, they're probably kept in a file cabinet someplace. Not like they can foreclose on the Whitehouse.
/sarcasm off.
I've been reading essentially this same story for 40 years. Only the identities of the foreign competition that will bury us changes: Europe, then Japan, now China and India. At one point it was even the USSR! Actually, it goes back much further, clear into the 19th century, with those who refuse to believe that Americans can compete.
Meanwhile the US economy consistently outperforms all.
Not that they couldn't be right this time, but a 40 to 100+ year record of false predictions should not be ignored either.
America has been successfully fighting the WOT with only the tiniest fraction of the effort in terms of manpower, material and money that we fought WWII. War production at its heights in WWII was a staggering 44% of American GNP. The entire post-911 2002 DOD budget was a mere 5-6% of US GNP - just barely above the 1939 pre-war spending low.
That's about how long the Government's been running a budget deficit, isn't it?
We've run up a helluva national debt over that period, that's for sure.
Of course, the dollar ain't worth what it used to be, either.
IMHO, the chickens come home to roost when peak Baby Boomers retire and attempt to collect from the system that they've contributed to all their lives.
So wasaaaap?
We are finally getting there: sitting on the beach, with margarita and waiting for occasional hurricane to stir things up (besides muSlimes flying into WT towers).
Wonder why all those dummies keep migrating here, don't they understand that we are doomed (or domed)?
IMHO, the chickens come home to roost when peak Baby Boomers retire and attempt to collect from the system that they've contributed to all their lives.
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And if the government does not deliver, there will be a shot heard 'round the world...our governmental elite think that their street is ONE WAY -- they are in for a suprise.
Suggest you look up the statistics for budget deficit and national debt per capita and as a percentage of the GDP over time. Absolute numbers are huge, but as a percentage, the only rational way to look at it, they aren't that big.
BTW, you can go the European and other magazines and they talk about how the US has a far more effective educational system than they do.
What is works out to is that US primary and secondary schools are terrible, but our colleges, with all their problems, are consistently the best in the world. Americans entering the job force after college are able to compete with anybody.
Europeans and Japanese work their tails off in high school and coast through college.
The really ticking time bomb is the fact that the US appears to be losing its technical lead in many areas. If other countries are going to do the manufacturing and produce the crops, we have to come up with the creative ideas that will keep the factories and farms going.
If you think the cost of education is high, wait until you see the cost of ignorance.
How 'bout we have a "concert" and ask for "forgiveness" of all our debts?
Simple. We must produce more, import less, export more, and buy more of what we consume from our own countrymen.
I think it is an enormous fallacy that a college degree is absolutely required to get ahead in today's world. I didn't have the chance to go to college, and today I'm in a professional field and frankly one of the leaders in that field.
Never let your schooling interfere with your education.
I wonder if anybody has ever run the numbers as to how much immigration and especially illegal immigration has contributed to the low inflation rates over the last 25 years. I know that food, lawn care, janitorial services, construction and many other labor-intensive economic inputs cost a lot less than they would with less or no immigration, and of course this translates into lower costs for the consumer of these items.
What high immigration has done is split the economy. Lower skill workers income has been kept down, while higher skilled workers, with whom immigrants seldom compete, have continued to increase their income, which has been amplified by the fact that inflation has been low, partially due to low labor rates created by immigrants.
But don't forget to figure in the heavy tax burden to provide services, and the very fact that we are allowing and condoning a criminality mindset where ILLEGAL no longer means ILLEGAL. I mow my own lawn, thank you.
So do I.
But we ought to at least recognize that most of us have enjoyed significant benefits from the illegal immigration. Quantifying the effects of a policy, both good and bad, is a reasonable way to start a discussion about what changes should be made.
Most people tend to look at a policy they dislike and assume that nothing undesirable would ensue if that policy were changed. I'm just suggesting we look at both up and down sides.
Let me add that I have seen the long lines at U.S. Embassies and Consulates in foreign countries (Russia, China, Philippines)with my own eyes: blocks and blocks long, day after day after day. It's this simple - - the whole world cannot come to the United States!! There must be limits and there must be laws, and ILLEGAL must still mean ILLEGAL in every context, including re immigration laws, and there must be PENALTIES for breaking the law. If there are not, then we teach utter and total disrespect for our legal system, and nothing will be seen as illegal after a while -- and we lose!!
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