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Topic: America Screwed
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K
VoivodFan
Member # 6
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posted February 15, 2009 15:16
    
From the article:"To American families, inflation is a destroyer of savings, a killer of wealth, a crusher of confidence. It calls into question the value of our money. And while we all share in the pain, the people whom inflation hits hardest are elderly people who live on fixed incomes, those in the middle class who are struggling to save for retirement and college and lower-income people who live paycheck to paycheck." Yes.
You have heard the words "Redistribution of wealth."
Globally this is what is happening...and will come out in the end with new super powers in control.
China, Russia, EU maybe.
I am not any sort of expert on all this. Just expressing my thoughts.
THIS IS WHY I SUPPORTED RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT till the powers that control it all brushed him aside and we had Clinton/Obama/and the forgettable Republican guy who threw the race when he chose the #1 idiot from Alaska to be VP.
Anyways. The article is good. Thanks Mez for posting it. Remember one thing. These things that are slamming America right now...are also hitting hard here in Croatia right now, but differently (because we are after-war Mafia controlled) but it still hurts. On a bright note...Laptops are REALLY cheap at WalMart right now!
If you can afford to do so...hop on that plane from Zagreb straight to the nearest WalMart to get all the cheapest stuff to stuff your suitcases with! The "Security" at Pleso will not even check the bags if you slip Što Kuna in your papers.
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Tangento
VoivodFan
Member # 117
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posted March 08, 2009 17:20
That's all you've got? First off, those books are in no way affiliated with the Common Dreams site. Check the URLs. Where did this imaginary "book club" of yours come from, anyway? Secondly, the choice to link to the Common Dreams website for that piece was completely random; Hartmann's articles are all over the web. I recommend that you read each and every one you can find. -------------------- "You have the option to drill additional holes in the label,
causing the record to rotate off the side of the turntable" -Tom Ellard - Severed Heads
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Tangento
VoivodFan
Member # 117
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posted March 09, 2009 17:45
quote:
Originally posted by Mezcalhead:
You obviously skipped that. I at least read the whole article you posted.
I read everything you had to offer, which is why I'll continue to refer you back to the writings of Mr. Hartmann and Mr. Batra until you manage to figure out the truth. Does the word "loophole" mean anything to you? How about "Multinational Corporations"? "Subsidies"? "Tax breaks for the filthy rich"? "Corporations given the same rights as individuals"? Any of that ring a bell?
quote:
The New Deal did not end the Depression, WW2 did.
Dude, don't come to me with a bunch of neocon/ Limbaugh talking points -- it's insulting to both of us. A coherent look at the history of the era shows that WWII actually slowed our recovery from the Republican Great Depression. In addition: quote:
Myth and ideology aside, the data show that from 1933 through 1936 the New Deal produced double-digit annual growth in GDP, production, after-tax income and private investment, with strong consumer spending and job growth exceeding their peaks in the 1929 bubble. The Great Depression ended by late 1936. While a new, severe recession began in May 1937 because FDR prematurely slashed public spending on New Deal programs, rapid growth quickly resumed in late 1938 when funding was restored. http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009020603/fdr-failed-myth
Great Society:
1. Poverty quote:
"from 1963 when Lyndon Johnson took office until 1970 as the impact of his Great Society programs were felt, the portion of Americans living below the poverty line dropped from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent, the most dramatic decline over such a brief period in this century."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/1999/9910.califano.html
2. Healthcare
quote:
A Harris Interactive poll released recently found that U.S. residents support 12 health care programs, policies and practices that range from the "conventional to more controversial," the Wall Street Journal reports. The online poll, which included responses from 2,242 adults, found that 96% of respondents "strongly" or "somewhat" support Medicare and that 91% support Medicaid. The poll also found that 75% of respondents support universal health insurance, compared with 17% who oppose the practice. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32459.php
So Lee: are you in that 17% minority? Sounds to me like the world's going to move on with or without them. Imagine this: with something akin to Medicare for all, there would be no skimming of 20-30% of our money, so poor, downtrodden CEOs like UHG's Bill MaGuire can't 'give themselves' a 1.3 BILLION dollar bonus check! Such a pity! Good fucking riddance to the unbounded greed of Healthcare Denial Profiteering! etc., etc. -------------------- "You have the option to drill additional holes in the label,
causing the record to rotate off the side of the turntable" -Tom Ellard - Severed Heads
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Tangento
VoivodFan
Member # 117
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posted March 28, 2009 23:20
"Wars spark the economy". Please tell me all the ways in which this trillion dollar Iraq fucking no-bid, privatized war-profiteering debacle has "sparked our economy". Perhaps Halliburton/ KBR & Blackwater's 'economies', but NOT OURS. You are waist deep in pigshit there, bro.  A quick double question: Where does the money you spend on bombs & artillery ultimately go? Up in smoke, which constitutes a dead-end investment.
Alternately, where does money spent on healthcare, education and infrastructure ultimately go?
Our future, perhaps?
I'll be back as well, to once-and-for-all debunk this ludicrous "WWII ending the depression" myth.
-------------------- "You have the option to drill additional holes in the label,
causing the record to rotate off the side of the turntable" -Tom Ellard - Severed Heads
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Tangento
VoivodFan
Member # 117
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posted March 30, 2009 23:07
An anti-union opinion piece, masquerading as "news", and based almost entirely on speculation? Not today. -------------------- "You have the option to drill additional holes in the label,
causing the record to rotate off the side of the turntable" -Tom Ellard - Severed Heads
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KnickerZohnonnof
VoivodFan
Member # 272
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posted June 03, 2009 14:32
As an outsider looking in I think the US stands on a precipice. You have one chance to get this right otherwise your days as a superpower are numbered.Is Obama the man for the job? I don't know, it is too early to tell right now. I hope that he is the catalyst for change but I fear that he will just become another part of the US's inexorable fall into decline. I do know one thing - A few years ago on a thread I started I predicted that in my lifetime a word will become increasingly more apparent as the years tick by - China. The more the current situation unfolds the more I think this is the case. They stand in the wings, waiting for their moment and it is coming. Slowly but surely it is coming and the more the US clings to past glories, lines the pockets of the super rich, allows companies to get away virtually tax free whilst allowing its infrastructure to fall into disrepair and spirals further into debt, the more likely the day China will take the mantle of superpower status away from it. The policies pursued by the West, particularly the US and UK, are slowly unravelling. Our country is now saddled with a generation of debt and yours has in excess of $10tn and counting. These levels are not sustainable and unless we realise the seriousness of our situation and change course radically I fear for the future of our children. -------------------- Hail Santa...
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Mezcalhead
VoivodFan
Member # 26
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posted June 07, 2009 08:52
quote:
Originally posted by KnickerZohnonnof:
As an outsider looking in I think the US stands on a precipice. You have one chance to get this right otherwise your days as a superpower are numbered.Is Obama the man for the job? I don't know, it is too early to tell right now. I hope that he is the catalyst for change but I fear that he will just become another part of the US's inexorable fall into decline. I do know one thing - A few years ago on a thread I started I predicted that in my lifetime a word will become increasingly more apparent as the years tick by - China. The more the current situation unfolds the more I think this is the case. They stand in the wings, waiting for their moment and it is coming. Slowly but surely it is coming and the more the US clings to past glories, lines the pockets of the super rich, allows companies to get away virtually tax free whilst allowing its infrastructure to fall into disrepair and spirals further into debt, the more likely the day China will take the mantle of superpower status away from it. The policies pursued by the West, particularly the US and UK, are slowly unravelling. Our country is now saddled with a generation of debt and yours has in excess of $10tn and counting. These levels are not sustainable and unless we realise the seriousness of our situation and change course radically I fear for the future of our children.
I think you're right on the mark with China. Here's a quote from Mark Steyn that somewhat echoes your comments: "And so it goes. Like General Motors, America is “too big to fail.” So it won’t, not immediately. It will linger on in a twilight existence sclerotic and ineffectual, declining unto a kind of societal dementia, unable to keep pace with what’s happening and with an ever more tenuous grip on its own past, but able on occasion to throw out impressive words albeit strung together without much meaning: empower, peace, justice, prosperity — just to take one windy gust from the president’s Cairo speech. There’s better phrase-making in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, in a coinage of Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Committee on Foreign Relations. The president emeritus is a sober, judicious paragon of torpidly conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, musing on American decline, he writes, “The country's economy, infrastructure, public schools, and political system have been allowed to deteriorate. The result has been diminished economic strength, a less vital democracy, and a mediocrity of spirit.” That last is the one to watch: A great power can survive a lot of things, but not “a mediocrity of spirit.” A wealthy nation living on the accumulated cultural capital of a glorious past can dodge its rendezvous with fate, but only for a while. That sound you heard in Cairo is the tingy ping of a hollow superpower."
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warcorpse
VoivodFan
Member # 1
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posted June 10, 2009 08:32
quote:
Originally posted by KnickerZohnonnof:
As an outsider looking in I think the US stands on a precipice. You have one chance to get this right otherwise your days as a superpower are numbered.Is Obama the man for the job? I don't know, it is too early to tell right now. I hope that he is the catalyst for change but I fear that he will just become another part of the US's inexorable fall into decline.
The term 'superpower' is a cold war relic. This is a global economy, the whole world is tied together. If the US fails, the world fails with it. Billions die. Ween yourself off, stop buying Pepsi.
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KnickerZohnonnof
VoivodFan
Member # 272
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posted June 12, 2009 13:39
Where China's greatest advantage lies is in their people because, effectively, they have no rights. They also work for a tiny fraction of what we do and since the West doesn't do protectionism in the same way it did 30 years ago, it is impossible to negate. I think their carbon footprint is becoming a serious worry, especially when they are also 'disposing' of the West's toxic waste (electrical goods mainly) in huge dock-side sites where plastic is burned in huge pyres,belching poisonous fumes into the air and printed circuit boards are dismantled using the crudest of methods - a large solder pot and a person levering the parts out with a screwdriver with absolutely no protective gear in sight.I think this is one of the greatest deceptions about the EU's policy on the disposal and recycling of electrical goods - introduce WEEE and have nothing in place to deal with the massive mountains of electrical goods that can no longer be put into landfill. The end result is while the EU can boast it is reducing landfill, the actuality is that the Earth is still being poisoned, just not in our back yard. -------------------- Hail Santa...
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