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Social issues aside, Pat is stuck in the 1950's, economically.

In the '50s? You mean when America was great, and respected in every corner of the globe, and feared by all enemies, or what was left of them at that point.

In the '50s? You mean when America was great, and respected in every corner of the globe, and feared by all enemies, or what was left of them at that point.

At the end of WWII, pretty much every other major industrial power had its industrial infrastructure in ruins. The US economy had very little competition and the world needed us to build as many good as as we possibly could.

But, it's now 60 years later. Japan and Germany have rebuilt, as have the other industrial powers. China's industry is growing, as are the industries of other, formerly undeveloped, nations.

I take it you can see why the economic situation in 2008 is different from that of 1950, right?

In the '50s? You mean when America was great, and respected in every corner of the globe, and feared by all enemies, or what was left of them at that point.

But what were the circumstances that led to that? WWII sapped all the energy out of Europe, Russia and developing Japan while China, India, South-East Asia were recovering from 100 to 150 years of rigious colonialism.

At that time, the US was the ONLY power around, the ONLY industrialised nation that could still manufacture.

Hence American workers were the best paid in the world and the companies could give in to the unions for great benefits.

However, by the 70s Germany and Japan had recovered and by the 90s the tiny nations of South-East Asia had worken up. When the two slumbering giants of India and China woke up, everyone KNEW there would be changes and a lot of impact. The thing no-one knew was that when they woke up they would run, growing at 8 to 11%. This momentum will keep up both due to demographic strength and to a growing knowledge in both nations that they need to recapture their rightful places in the world (up until 1810, they together accounted for 50%+ of the world's GDP, but that had fallen to <1% by 1945

The US will no longer be the absolute, overwhelming power of the 50s, but it will still be the #1 power.