Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We'll find out soon enough if we keep gutting wages, benefits, the social safety net, and the environment, while making folks work longer hours without compensation, castrating their workers union, bailing out Wall Street's irresponsibility, giving the rich another tax cut, and ultimately sending all our jobs overseas!
Then get rid of all the tax cuts. Are you ready to give up yours too?
The only people that would be negatively effected by The US being a "second rate world power" would be the many Corporations who have contracts in The Middle East (Dick Cheney and Haliburton ring a bell?) and those wishing for a One World Government and Monetary system.
Regular Americans would most likely see their Quality of Life rise as more funds would be available for domestic infrastrucure and education instead of foreign nation building.
Dick Cheney is not getting ONE CENT from Haliburton's contracts in the Middle East. He left that company over 15 years ago.
Once you become a "second rate" power you start taking orders from the "first rate" power.
And who might this first rate power be? As a member of NATO and close ally to the world's richest nations, we'd be more of a partner than a b****. Currently, and really since World War II, we've played the part of sucker. We're the rich uncle who always picks up the restaraunt tab for anyone and everyone who eats. Well, that may have made sense in 1950, but now, perhaps we should ask the folks we dine with to pay their fair share, should we not?
And who might this first rate power be? As a member of NATO and close ally to the world's richest nations, we'd be more of a partner than a b****. Currently, and really since World War II, we've played the part of sucker. We're the rich uncle who always picks up the restaraunt tab for anyone and everyone who eats. Well, that may have made sense in 1950, but now, perhaps we should ask the folks we dine with to pay their fair share, should we not?
In another thread I saw a person mention something about the US becoming a "second-rate world power" like the UK. And it got me thinking... how bad could that actually be?
Most people in the UK seem to enjoy the same standard of living that we enjoy. They have cell phones, computers, running water, electricity, etc. Yes, they've even got McDonalds and Starbucks and Chipotle! I get the feeling that a lot of people think anywhere that's not the US is some sort of backwards dystopia, but a lot of countries really aren't that different from us in terms of standards of living. Hell, some are better.
Thoughts?
Agreed
These ''second-rate world powers'' have lower violent crime and a lower obese ratio than we do.
We wouldn't look like the UK (or any other western nation for that matter) because we wouldn't have a United States to subsidize our military. Even so, I think we should significantly roll back our military spending and involvement with the rest of the world. What that would entail would be to work more cooperatively with those nations that truly share our values and interests -- Canada, the UK, NATO, Israel, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, etc. They would have to spend more money and be more involved with their own defense. We would have to accept the fact that we can't just schedule a war and expect others to show up.
See; that's the thinking that goes with being more than just a little arrogant about having 300 million population to foster a burdgeoning military complex that rules your life and no one elses.
Who would be those enemies that these other countries should spent more to defend ourselves from. Has there been some foreign incursions to any of these other countries to support your claims that countries like Canada and the U.K. et al and, oh dang; throw in France for good measure, have been defended by your military spending?
Would those hypothetical enemies have been created by those other countries foreign policies or just yours; which would make them your enemies only, wouldn't it?
Canada as an excellant example would only have been under threat of invasion for the last 50 years if Russia or Communist China were going through our country to get to you. Think it's feasible; when all of you tend to agree "no one dare invade us 'cause we're all armed with our Colts".
Given that last little belief; your 2nd amendment rights, you all cling so tight to; I guess you didn't really need a huge military to go swanning all over the globe invading places as a defensive tool but rather as an expansionist tool to further your foreign interests, correct? ? ?
WWII and perhaps Korea being the last legitimate conflicts your military have been involved in as protagonists; perhaps you haven't needed such a huge military to have contributed to the various peace keeping missions.
That's the interesting thing about your position with regards to your fears and indoctrination perpetrated upon you by your government and it's duplicity with your military complex. You are incapable of thinking in any other context other than "we've always been right and morally correct in the positions we've adopted regarding our foreign policies".
WRONG!!!! You've gotten away with it because you're the toughest kid on the block and you know what that's called don't you?
Last edited by BruSan; 12-15-2011 at 10:56 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
