The death throes of America is overreacting.

 

The basics that make the US a superpower stay in place. 

- Defending the US homeland is easy compared to Russia, China or India, provided the US keeps good relations with Canada and Mexico.

  - Provided the US keeps good relations with Canada and Mexico, defending the US is basically a 2 fleet and an army problem.

  - If good relations with the neighbors are not kept you may need to add an extra army. (Defend 2 borders instead of 1) .

- There are plenty of rescources in the US.

The thing is that the US is doing stupid things that do more harm than these basics do good.

- The US gets caught in a worldwide strategic juggling act. (Georgia, Kosovo, Somalia, etc.)

- The US policy is determined by an unrealistic free trade economic ideology.

   This is strangely similar to Russia's policy being determined by an unrealistic communist economic ideology.

- Letting kartels effectively "tax" all other US companies.

  The cost of healthcare effects the ability of the other US companies to compete.

Etc, etc.

 

Anytime the US starts acting smarter, their power will increase. Then again, maybe it's just a case of the dragon that was awakened by the Japanese during WW2 going to sleep again.

 

 

After ww2 we were the bankers (net creditors) and manufacturers to the British and a lot of the world. China is in the same shoes today with the US. All in all u r correct there is not much hope, and strictly speaking for those in dire need for money ought to leave the US as the dream is dead for 10 to 20 years at least. Those who made out did really well but the leftovers are paltry- go to Australia, Canada, or Singapore or hong kong or Shanghai. At the rate we are STILL spending we will need to borrow $2trillion a year, nobody going to support our suv habit. The US dollar is already replaced in banks as reserve currency (65% of reserves in foreign banks used to be in thgreenbacks, its now 35% recently only). Japan that used to support us dollar no longer care about appreciating yen and really are looking for new customers.  Asia pacific is the new land of opportunity and capitalism. US is headed for socialism and crony capitalism. Either u r employed by the government or their buddy like Goldman Sachs. Its the 21st century -Go EAST young man the last frontier of true capitalism.

 

(yes China is going to be more capitalistic than US)

Defending US homeland is easy? By what standard? The British burned the nation's capital in the War of 1812. The Brits took Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, etc during the Revolution. They weren't very strongly motivated either or distracted with other wars.

 

The Federals carved the Confederacy up along the Mississippi, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers (Others too - James, Neuse, etc).

Russia by comparison may have been invaded by serious attackers but never successfully so in the modern era.

 

If the US' trade ideaology is unrealistic then what is a realistic ideology?

 

The cost of government far outweighs the cost of healthcare but we aren't being told we need government reform in order to be economically competitive.

If the US' trade ideaology is unrealistic then what is a realistic ideology?

I'm trying to think of a time when protectionist policies didn't make a bad situation worse.  I can't; maybe FJV can enlighten me.  (That's a genuine offer, FJV, not snark.)

 

We're only dead if we choose to be.  I hope we choose not to be, if for no other reason to give Le Zoo blue balls.

 

The idea that defending our borders is easy in the information age is laughable. In the early 1940s we had to ship tens of thousands of heavy bombers to Britain and bomb Germany for years to cripple their industry. We are approaching the day that an enemy could do the same in hours or days without leaving the comfort of their cubes. The degree of our vulnerability we face will only become greater as our nation's infrastructure becomes incresingly networked. Yet the only hope we have is to push our technology forward faster than our competitors. If we fall behind, they will quickly bury us.

 

How will we stay ahead? Microsoft, Cisco, and Google replaced older technology companies like IBM and AT&T as the driving force of American technology as those older companies inevitably ossified in old age the way those companies replaced manufacturers like GM. But Sarbanes Oxley has stiffled new high-tech startups by making it prohibitively expensive to go public. It now appears there will be no new generation of fresh startups to replace Microsoft, Google, and Cisco as they ossify. Inventors with new ideas will either have to sell them to the current giants, or stay small and be stifled, or expatriate.

 

 If that wasn't enough, soon nationalized health care may add yet another heavy yoke around the neck of our nation's businesses. 100 years ago, Europeans seeking opportunity came to America. How long before Americans seeking opportunity are forced to go elsewhere? Companies seeking to outsource to countries with the cheapest possible labor are starting to turn away from India because the Indian workforce is modernizing so rapidly that high-tech workers there are beginning to demand higher wages than they used to. The criticisms of those who oppose such offshore outsourcing on the grounds that it is harming those nations are being rapidly proven false. We aren't stifling the Indian economy's ability to compete, instead we are bootstrapping it.