'Why the US should be worried' (Good Read)

[OhioChick]

London, January 4, 2007

You always think that the United States of America is the only real superpower in the current world. Well… soon you may have to rethink about it. The "real superpower" title is going to become the mother of all lies and conspiracy theories that the world have had ever known. Don't accept it? Read the following facts and think again:

From the beginning of this 21st century, the United States is facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties. Its lower and middle class families are slowly turning out to be the biggest losers of current globalisation. The United States, like ancient Rome, is beginning to be plagued by the limits of its power.

The current globalisation is heavily affecting its economy. In fact, the US has actively promoted the worldwide exchange of commodities like no other nation, and the result is that their local manufacturing industries have begun to be eroded.

Some manufacturing sectors such as furniture, consumer electronics, automobile part suppliers and computer manufacturers have had left the country for good. In the recent past, free trade has primarily benefited the very rival countries that are now mounting a heavy economic offence on the United States and the rival countries have cut off a large slice of America's global market share.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1887880,0093.htm


<snip> Almost no one is saving any money in the United States today. Saving rates are very low or negative. The US debt grows by about $1.5 billion every weekday and has now reached about $6.5 trillion dollars. Private household debt has reached $11 trillion and 50 per cent of these debts have been incurred since 1998. The Americans are enjoying the present spending spree at the cost of their own future and future generations. The fact is that the expanding consumer debt drives the US economy.

Half the world is very impressed by the low levels of unemployment in the United States. Only the other half clearly knows very well that these statistics may be the result of a voluntary telephone survey. Is working just ten hours per week enough for one to be classified as "employed"? The US statistics is usually intended to create more positive image and opinion than about its actual condition. The net reality is that the US job growth rate is falling behind its own population growth.

A country that cannot create jobs for its own population is not a superpower.

[annabanana]

1. We haven't been a "real" superpower since the

anti-american anti-government crowd started destroying the manufacturing and financial infrastructure.

[ShortnFiery]

15. But our Legislators are all seemingly Pro-War Machine

if not in Iraq, they wish to stay and duke it out in Afghanistan, i.e., another lost cause. :thumbsdown:

"By going to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, many US military companies owned by the politicians must have made billions in profit."

THE KEY (Always!): Follow the (BIG) money.

[Greyhound]

2. Is it impolite to say "We told you so"?

Some of us have been trying to warn people that this "New World Order" would result in our suffering the loss of what made us great, namely the middle class.

It's not too late to turn this around, but we don't have much longer before it will be.

[tom_paine]

13. Pretty impolite. I think when the crunch comes, they will be coming for the New Jews

LIBERALS are the New Jews. And, of course, many Jews are Liberals.

[ShortnFiery]

14. So Tragic because, it's truly us LIBERALs who want to raise up all

peoples. It's a great deceit that the religious right is playing on the populace. It's almost as if far too many Christians have taken "a stupid pill" in order to forget "The Sermon on The Mount" and MOST of Jesus's teachings within the New Testament.

Jesus is the ultimate LIBERAL for he loves all peoples EQUALLY. Believer and non-believer as well as the righteous and sinner --> they all are equal.

The foregoing is why, for the life of me, I can not begin to wrap my Liberal Christian brain around the right wing of my faith.

They are clearly delusional and the type of people that Hitler's goons would have recruited to be part of their strack SS, i.e., they're dangerous. :scared:

Isn't tragic that those who come to help are the ones who are erroneously vilified, maimed and killed? :cry:

[Mechatanketra]

19. Heck, liberals were the old Jews, too.

It's all about the Dolchstosslegende — the old refrain sold to the ugly souls whose support all reactionary movements depend upon: "We would have won that last war, if only they hadn't stabbed us in the back ..."

Hitler built the Nazi party around this: Jewish intellectuals 'betrayed' Germany in WWI. And of course, American conservatives have floated the same veiled call for violent reprisal after every failed military adventure.

[BR_Parkway]

3. Why is this so easy for everyone to see except those in power?

Well, and the Freepi, who bought into all the sloganeering

[raccoon]

6. Maybe because their reality of different from the average American's reality.

Or else they see it but don't care.

[ellenfl]

8. they don't care. they're getting theirs . . . also at our expense. eom

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

7. Those in power are beholden to the corporations who are doing this to us

They either can't see it or don't want to see it.

This is one more reason that all campaigns should be financed with public money. Candidates should have equal access to free time on broadcast media and private donations should be abolished.

Giving money to politicians is not protected speech, it is legalized bribery. Our current method of financing campaigns is institutionalized corruption.

[antigop]

12. It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair.

[Gman]

4. Excellent article

Very to matter of fact. Very to the point. The article is a view that many here in the US know is true but that Bushco doesn't want others to realize that its true.

K&R

[rodeodance]

5. I fear for America------esp. when I see the lack of caring after Katrina

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

9. There was a lot of caring after Katrina. It just didn't come from the government

My church (in Virginia) has made two trips to take supplies and rebuild homes in Mississippi.

Dozens, possibly hundreds, of other organizations have done the same.

If your point is that our government should have led this effort, I agree with you. I just want to point out that Americans still care about each other.

[pacalo]

11. You are so correct!

And it is most certainly the federal government that has failed us. No state can get back on its feet after such a disaster on its own. In a nutshell, we have a Democratic governor who is at the mercy of a very partisan, cruel "president".

[pacalo]

10. This article is a good find, OhioChick. Big recommend from me.

[ChromeFoundry]

16. Very good article...

it truly amazes me every time I am driving down the highway and see one of those oval "W-04" stickers on the back of a foreign make vehicle... along side of the yellow "support our troops" magnet... driven by a person yaking on a cell phone... 20 mph beyond the speed limit... changing lanes like they earn points for it... child in a car seat in the backseat...

it truly amazes me that there are enough of these idiots out there to 'almost' win an election and enough in power to steal it when they didn't win.

it truly amazes me that nearly 1/2 of the United States is THIS asleep.

[barb162]

17. I always hated that "superpower" title

It makes other countries just envious. Still, when people want to emigrate from other countries, where do they want to go. Not China or Japan or India.

[Jim Warren]

18. Oh boy

The tone of this piece is so disarmingly matter of fact. It neatly compiles the lengthy and cumulative list of shortcomings in a way that is downright painful. For me, the fact that it originates outside the confines of the US corporate media
machine only adds an objectiveness that confirms my own worst fears.

Man, pieces like this cause me to think hard about trying to get out, out of this country while there might still be time.