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The wrold is made up of international compnaies who even i thsi recession survive most on being international marketed.Poeple will never see us being the world producers we were followig WWII and we are losing our consumer base to countries like China. #1 auto market and soon to be even in movie business. But stilwe see masses that are streamig in legal and illegal to take advatage of what this country offers.the american dream was based o seling to otehr s and never guaranteed.
The society is just plain falling apart and become more like a third world country like Haiti. Its not going to be pretty in the future.
While I agree that there are some genuine and troubling trends and problems in the U.S., I'd suggest that comparing our trends to becoming like Haiti to be... a bit... hysterical. Haiti aspires to be a Fourth World country. Most of Haiti is as bad as the worst of the worst Third World countries.
Now, given the shrinking middle class and extremes of income (becoming more like an hourglass and less like a pot belly) we are becoming more like places like Brazil, and that's bad enough.
America is on a downward trend, but few really understand the reason why. There are positives, like the growth in the oil business. We may very well be energy independent in 10 years or so. On the other hand, there are big negatives, the retirement of the baby-boomers will stretch and strain the federal budget and taxes will continue to go up and this will be a drag on the economy, and add in OBamacare, and you have real first class pain. But the big problem is the moral problems, the continued increase in drug use, and the decline of the nuclear family. Studies have shown that children raised in single parent homes have more problems, they are more likely to be involved in crime, poor school performance etc. People are getting more selfish, more self centered, lazier, more dishonest, and all those will definitely mean a lower quality of life for most. The society is just plain falling apart and become more like a third world country like Haiti. Its not going to be pretty in the future.
I have to agree with this and I just hate it. I want the problems this country is facing to work out and it still be the great country that it was, for my grandchildren's sake. I don't think so. I just don't see it. There is too much fragmentation, our shared history is being lost to more and more political correctness and rampant development, the majority of our government is either corrupt or out of touch with ordinary people and yes, the drug culture is so, so bad.
The numerous reports of America's decline/demise aren't just popping up without reason. In spite of the fact that most of history's noted empires failed from internal rot, the average American seems oblivious of the reasons for our own socio-economic failings. I'm getting old so I don't suppose I'll see the U.S. imploding on itself anytime soon. But I do think it's highly possible that this mega wealth driven assault on our financial well being will have long term consequences. Can a nation abdicate it's democratic economic underpinnings and survive? One poster noted the continuing flow of foreigners to this country as proof of our economic vitality and validity. But the truth of immigration is more apt to bear out the obvious, and that is, that America is still better off than most of the nations we've trounced for our own national gain. After world war two we saw the increase in Japanese, then post war Koreans in the fifties, and south east Asians in the seventies through the nineties. Very few Europeans, or Canadians, but lots of Middle easterners, Africans, starving southern islanders, and others who had nothing. The inner cities of America are filled with these hopefuls from hell, contrary to popular belief they don't always rise.
This was the same fate that Rome experienced during it's declining years, from all over the empire the vanquished came, looking for opportunity, and finding a despairing life and eventually death. Did this mean that Rome was on the rise? Hardly, Instead, it was a sign of the Romans failure to address the needs of those it overpowered. We are in the same position here in America, six decades of war has brought us to the edge of financial ruin, what, you thought wars can be fought on pocket change? All empires have that one common theme, international financial dominance, followed by the inability to duplicate the successful homeland economy in those nations that become "client states" to the empire. In his book, New Rulers of The World John Pilger adequately points out the fallacy and failings of U.S. policy throughout the world, like the Romans we have seen ourselves as the Do-gooders who have needed to convince the rest of the world, at the point of the sword, of our greatness.
American citizens, like most of the human race are pretty good people at heart, their government however, is simply a front for the face of greed and larceny, corporate power rules here much like the well heeled ruled in Rome. Until the day we have a nation directed by the true majority we won't see much change, national decline doesn't happen as an across the board depletion of resources and wealth, it takes it's first victims from the bottom of society, and works it's way up....
have people who are willing to work harder and longer than in other nations,
I have been interviewing, hiring, training, and employing staffs for almost twenty years in about ten cities, and feel qualified to tell you that this is categorically untrue.
Even NOW, at a time when people have a harder time making ends meet than ever, the sense of entitlement of the typical American is like some sort of mass hallucination.
Could you elaborate? I'm not in a position to hire like the previous poster and my work environment is very narrowly specific, but I seem to see an army of new college grads who think they hung the moon. (My job hires a lot of them because they are cheap to hire and leave quickly for grad school, plus, there is the prestige, or shall I say "prestige" of having grads all over the place for a job where common sense means a whole lot more than degrees. (Psych hospital, inpatient, acute care).
I find his parting advice to "divest investments and move into cash" to be rather silly considering that "cash" would be worthless if his dystopian view came to fruition.
Regardless, the piece is very similar to many that are around these days predicting doom and imminent collapse of the "American Empire". What I find amusing as a student of history is that the US has weathered far worse storms in the past and recovered from each stronger and with a new resolve. Each crisis irrevocably changes the nation, but it cannot destroy it. I am honestly astounded at the number of people that claim this is the "worst" time in American history. Would not the Civil War and Great Depression take the crown as the "worst" time in American history when the prospects of remaining a united and strong nation seemed most dire? The current crisis tends to rank number two on the list of financial disasters, but is still more "Panic of 1893, 1907 or 1873" then it is Great Depression.
Will the US 50 years from now look the US today? No, it won't. Today is rather different from 1963 and that was far removed from 1913 which was far removed from 1853 which was very different from 1803 which was quite different from 1753. Times change and the US and its role and place in the world changes. I am not saying there won't be some form of economic collapse or hardship, but I am not going to start stockpiling canned goods, ammo and hording gold.
I am honestly astounded at the number of people that claim this is the "worst" time in American history.
I'm reminded of James Kunstler, a prominent "Peak Oil" Cassandra who has, literally every year for the past decade or so, been predicting the complete collapse of the world economy, the Dow sinking to 3000, mass riots and starvation, etc. He keeps being utterly wrong, and he keeps making exactly the same prediction, desperately hoping that one year he'll finally be right.
All of that might still come to pass, but I think it's more likely that we will find a way -- to quote that schmaltzy Christmas song -- to muddle through somehow.
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