Posted on 10/17/2009 9:35:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Easy for you to say.
Obama is the president and Democrats run the congres. Do not underestimate the danger they can do.
Excellent article.
Various countries are posited as as replacing America as the dominant power. This is usually done by concentrating on America’s problems while ignoring those of the contender.
Europe, Russia and China have structural economic and cultural issues that dwarf those of the USA.
Dominance in the world is relative, not absolute. America could go into significant decline in absolute terms and remain dominant as long as competitors decline at equal or greater rates.
LOL.. now thats funny...
Yup, America will survive rule by punks and I think, when bambi and his minions are booted out, it will finally be the end of the sixties.
I may be a romantic but over my lifetime I have seen much good arise from tragedy.
Decline and re-examination by the American people of how their nation sees its future, questioning where we are headed and whether we are over-extended in our relationship to the other nations of the world.
Perhaps it would be a positive for the “divisive nation” as it is now to make some decisions with compromise and coming together to avoid future disaster.
In sum - fear may bring out our spirit again as the great nation we are - the nation we have built and which we all are a part of - together - in cooperation.
The decline of the West in general (of which we are part) is the defining geopolitical fact of our era. It’s a process that’s already well under way. Industrial societies that don’t take in many immigrants (such as Russia) are already contracting, those that do (like us) have delayed the outward signs of their own decline. As we become an ever smaller and less important subsection of the world, global leadership will naturally pass to the East, before perhaps shifting elsewhere.
And there’s no need to see China, or India, or anyone else as the villain in all this. Everything that’s happening to us we’re doing to ourselves.
Authoritarianism is already eclipsing democracy, and in this country.
The article omits a key and I think decisive fact. It’s called education. Our educational system is in shambles and accounts for the loss of manufacturing industry and the migration of high tech jobs to to China, India, and the Asian tigers. In less than a decade China has emerged as major political power ( its influence in the Korean peninsula is massive- and we cannot even host the Dalai Lama for “fear” of offending China) and of course, China holds almost two-thirds of American debt. Where do we go from here?
Time to wake up. America IS in decline. Obama is the symptom of where we are. But it’s isn’t irreversible. We can get back to greatness and liberty again, but we are right now fullspeed into the opposite direction.
OK, I realize that China holds a large chunk of US debt, but let’s not exagerrate things. China does not own 2/3 of our debt.
See here :
The 15 Largest Holders of United States Debt
15: Luxembourg – $104.2 Billion
14: Depository Institutions – $107.3 Billion (commercial banks, savings banks, credit unions)
13: Russia – $119.9 Billion
12: Insurance Companies – 126.4 Billion
11: Brazil – 139.8 Billion
10: Caribbean Banking Centers – 189.7 Billion
9: Oil Exporters – $191 Billion
8: United Kingdom – $214 Billion
7: Pension Funds – $465.4 Billion
6: State and local governments – $522.7 Billion
5: Other Investors – $629.7 Billion (“other” refers to individuals, government sponsored enterprises, brokers and dealers, bank personal trusts, estates, corporate and non-corporate businesses)
4: Japan – $711.8 Billion
3: China – $776.4 Billion
2: Mutual Funds – $769.1 Billion
1: Federal Reserve and Intergovernmental Holdings – 4.785 Trillion
Now, can anyone explain to me what FEDERAL RESERVE ownership of US debt means and its implications ? It looks like we’re printing money and loaning OURSELVES the money at the same time...
My wife and I counted all of the nieces, nephews, cousins, children and grandchildren in our combined family circles.
The producers are vastly outnumbered by the non producers. Even the term non producer is generous. Those on that side of the equation are leaches, sucking out scary proportions of society’s assets.
And it is significant that many of these young adults were raised in productive middle class families.
One 37 year old has had 7 illegitimate children, all taken from her by the state of Florida. The costs to society are incalculable. Several are milking SS disability for so called mental problems.
The literacy level of those under 35 with HS diplomas is depressing.
If this is coming out of middle America, what does that tell us about other segments of society?
There is the 600 pound gorilla in the alley.
As far as I can tell, that is all simply paper. And a lot of the ink is still wet.
And the Fed is printing money to pay the interest on the money borrowed from other entities.
Exactly. China is going to have a meltdown not too long from now. Usually when that happens it means it will split up among provincial warlords, if history is any judge.
But that's not to say that America isn't in deep, deep trouble.
Another candidate for world leader is Brazil. But there, too, they have worse problems than we do. We're probably in for a bad time all over the world, which may last for 20 years or so. I hate to seem gloomy, but it's hard to avoid.
And that large an economic collapse is pretty sure to lead to wars. So, we'll see how it all plays out. Better if Pakistan didn't have nukes. Better if North Korea didn't have nukes. Better if Iran wasn't getting nukes from Putin. Better if Putin didn't have ambitions to reset the Soviet Empire. Because we're going to be seeing a world-wide mess.
That's exactly how they do it. Big ol' shell game!
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