We're the richest country in the world, and yet we're always just ...

[gauguin57]

... one big event away from total disaster. One terrorist attack (yes, it was major, but we're the richest country...) shuts down the whole country and puts airlines out of business.

One hurricane (albeit a BAAAAD one) sends prices into the stratosphere, and has everyone freaking out about how we're ALL going to survive.

We have all this money, all these resources (yes, I know, too many of them are in Iraq) ... so CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW WE'RE ALWAYS ONE DISASTER AWAY FROM GOING TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET?

EXPLAIN IT TO ME, PLEASE! Does no one think ahead? Does no one PLAN ahead? Where are our leaders?

[BurningDog]

1. Easy...

It makes for good cable news.

[Erika]

2. Tonight I feel we are in that handbasket

after the way we treated Katrina victims. Our poverty level is increasing as well as our uninsured. No, I don't think we can any longer call ourselves the richest country in the world. If nothing else, our government is morally corrupt.

[Liberal In Texas]

3. Where did you get the idea that we're the "richest country" in the world?

Rush?
Hannity
O'RealY?
Coulter?
Savitch?
et al...

We are not the richest country in the world. We have a very thin economy that might just be pushed over the edged because of a hurricane.

[gauguin57]

13. Yeah, I thought of that after I posted ... we are on the edge.

Our "riches" may very well be an illusion -- all those people with the maxed-out credit cards and the huge houses may be in for a ruuuuuude awakening!

Let's just say, "we're a VERY wealthy country -- why can one event threaten to destroy our economy?"

[opihimoimoi]

4. Bush just came off a 4.9 week VACATION...In which he abuses the priviledge

FREE TRANSPORTATION....which cost us taxpayers$$$$ ukamillion for every hour..... How can he get away with this..smokescreen...no one thinks....We are numbed with diversions...

Our Leaders are a Reflection of the VOTING....Our Leaders are US in drag/in suits/in Levi's.

[pauldp]

6. Our leader is a reflection of the corruption that has overtaken us.

The electoral process is a reflection of the same.

[FormerRepublican]

5. The problem is rich = top 1% and they want to keep their $$$.

They're more than willing to sacrifice the rest of us. In fact, they prefer it that way.

[The Magistrate]

11. That Is the Root Of It Indeed, Sir

"The existance of a millionaire requires a thousand paupers."

[melody]

7. we're the enemy

In reality the arrogant rich (who give us the bad name) represent the minority and the rest of us are left to the whims of fate. Every other industrialized nation on earth has a government concerned about the welfare of its people. Ours is interested in the profit of its businesses - the people as far as they're concerned can go to hell.

[wli]

8. yep, Bushler selection of 2000 was a declaration of class war n/t

[wli]

9. no, we just fell through the bottom of the handbasket n/t

[cire4]

10. We think we're so invulnerable that it, in turn, makes us

very vulnerable.

Our notion of American superiority is to blame IMO. Somehow many Americans harbor the false idea that America is the greatest country in the world and that it is, thus, superior to other countries.

This leads to the idea that we are therefore, less susceptible to disasters and tragedies than other countries in the world. We see tsunamis in Southeast Asia and think "that could never happen here because we have money and infrastructure unlike those poor countries."

These attitudes create feelings of invulnerability, which would explain the lack of planning and preparation and the utter shock at the damage that the hurricane has caused.

[Speck Tater]

12. Read Jared Diamond's book "Collapse"

We're not so big and powerful that we can't just collapse. In fact our collapse is probably inevitable. If not this year, maybe next year or the year after. But it will come.

[newportdadde]

14. Thats a great book. I'm reading it now.

All of these civilizations gone, once the superpowers of their time, just gone. Of course none of them thought it would happen to them either.