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The press has people believe that Russia is an enemy because of God knows whatever reason. I don't know. I don't watch the news.
Reality is that the Russia is an enemy because it stands in the way of complete US/US Allies hegemony in the middle east and then central Asia, and then eventually Russia itself.
It's all about resources. It doesn't matter how "rich" someone is on paper without resources. Russia and China are strategically located where all the resources are.
That is the future. As you said, it's not that complicated.
russia isnt america's enemy. they only are to warmongers like john mccain on the right and nutball hillary lovers on the left.
the middle east isnt important to americans, only to the military industrial complex.
what resources are russia on the verge of monopolizing?
JObster, don't you think we should be moving away from oil?
I'd hate to think the future of this country was dependent on oil- how backwards thinking can you get? If it wasn't for Trump and his love of big oil, we'd even be further along this year...
I don't know anything about the author outside of that article, but what about the article did you disagree with?
The author of the cited article is quite correct, that “in America, there is the catastrophic collapse of social bonds”. This is true, as regards family bonds, neighborly bonds, civic bonds, political bonds. And he’s certainly right, in that we could be doing so vastly better, at little additional personal cost to ourselves.
But where the author goes astray, is that he fails to observes how brutish and terrifying life was, as recently as say 150 years ago, before penicillin, public sanitation, universal free public schooling, and the like. For every child that’s today gunned down in a school shooting, 150 years ago, 10 would have died from dysentery, typhoid or cholera – or even malnutrition. Life expectancy in America may (in some demographic groups) be falling, but consider how much higher it is today, even among drug-addicts or the desperately poor, than it was 150 years ago, even among aristocrats.
In other words, our world today could (and perhaps should) be considerably better. But it's still inordinately better than it was in the days of our great-great-grandparents.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jobster
...Not only do Japanese and European central banks plan on liquiditating their US equity holdings in 2018,
OK, now we finally have a testable proposition. Let's wait until January 01, 2019. Then we'll be able to assess, as to whether the Japanese and European central banks will have "liquidated their US equity holdings in 2018". My guess is that said banks will have substantially increased said holdings... but that's just me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person
Newsflash, the US has always had oligarchic tendencies.
Every successful society in every place and epoch in history has had "oligarchic tendencies". Neither absolute monarchies, nor true democracies, are sustainable. The sweet-spot is a system where power (political or economic) is diffused across a not-too-large, not-too-small segment of the populace. What about the rest of the populace, the great majority thereof? We have a term for them: peasants.
The U.S. is basically a Third World Country with oil... ...
haha its not really that simple. its based on the diversity of the economy and overall economic condition. its not just a random insult like you seem to wish to turn back at America.
The U.S. is basically a Third World Country with oil... ...
here take a look at countries ranked by per capita GDP. look at where Russia is and that is including oil (and they are the number 1 oil producing nation in the world).
Article seems like a clickbatish op-ed with a sprinkling of random facts. You cannot prove statements like "American collapse is a catastrophe of human possibility without modern parallel ." It's very difficult to take seriously any writing that is so rife with emotional trigger phrases. The more I read and re-read it it the more ridiculous it gets, maybe it's generating a good discussion here, but I just can't waste anymore time on a piece with so little substance.
I'm sure that's a symptom of some historically catastrophic pathology as well...or maybe it's simply that my lunch hour is over.
Every successful society in every place and epoch in history has had "oligarchic tendencies". Neither absolute monarchies, nor true democracies, are sustainable. The sweet-spot is a system where power (political or economic) is diffused across a not-too-large, not-too-small segment of the populace. What about the rest of the populace, the great majority thereof? We have a term for them: peasants.
I'd say that the US has been an oligarchy for ~200 years. Maybe more.
The problem we face now is that it is no longer in the interests of the oligarchs to promote generally prosperity, harmony, freedom, and rights for the masses. And that is a serious issue that will become bigger.
The US has plenty of domestic oil to fight a very long war.
its kind of a strange statement presented by jobster. it doesnt really mean anything, just some hysterics. nobody can conduct a war without oil because nobody can power their equipment without oil. why does that matter? is he suggesting that one day russia will have all the oil and we wont be able to go to war anymore? sounds pretty great to me but its also ignoring a lot of other realities to ultimately end up saying nothing of any meaning.
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