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Sounds similar to the three hundred year decline of Rome. Then the Dark Ages. Not a good time to be alive. Fifty percent mortality rates.
But eventually Christianity saved Europe, Maybe still hope for the U.S.
Christianity in previous centuries was one of the bloodiest and violent of movements. Not sure I would want to be "saved" in that way.
America is a not so easily defined empire, the overall picture of US hegemony beginning in the twenties and continuing to this day can be traced to the creation of entities such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the UN, the Trilateral commission and newcomers like the PNAC group. Through these not so public think tank groups the direction of western capital and world market development has come to be synonymous with the phrase, "American interests". Whether force is used in the process of developing the "client states" that make up the global "partnership" is of little consequence to the power brokers from the cabal of US business/government interests. What does matter is that these client states must fall into the pecking order assigned by such esteemed organizations as the WTO which has a very pro western bias. The fact of our military interventions in resource rich regions of the world also points to the overall strategy developed by those who are overseeing the "American interests" around the globe.
Whether our collective US hides are on the line is just a guess at this point, the trouble with seeing the US as a one dimensional economic structure is the fact that "we" the citizens of the US and the government/business coalition of the US are worlds apart regarding our collective well being, that group of scoundrels has already shown us which side they are on, it's all about them and their future, they obviously don't give a damn about us, we could be in the gutter while our wealthiest corporations are doing OK on the world market. Look around you on any given day and you'll see the stock market metrics reflecting not the overall health of a nation but moreover the health of the corporate state, "we" just don't always fit in the equation. The future of the working class is quite different from that of the upper class that already has plans in place for the potential upheaval that could threaten their wealth not to mention their physical well being.
In order to weather the coming crap storm people will need to rethink their old vision of a non stop continuation of economic growth, it is that singular view that could be the undoing of those with little resources and knowledge, doing the economically unthinkable is now the new realization that some might be better off doing anything that brings in the money, manual labor for the once white collar worker, mowing lawns and doing the dirtiest jobs while undercutting the foreign labor costs that now dominates our service industry, caring for our elderly because it may just benefit both the care worker and the elderly, doubling up on housing just as those recent immigrants have done to leverage their lower labor cost, and most of all forgetting the mantra of MORE, more of everything just for the hell of it.
Fear is the one thing that American's have succumbed to in the past to their collective shame, rounding up the "enemy" like they did in the forties, throwing fellow citizens in the street for lack of money like they did in the thirties, we needn't be so afraid of economic deprivation, in fact it may be just what the Doc ordered so that we can find our way back to a more centered life, less selfishness, more cooperation, how that can be looked upon as some kind of disaster is beyond me. I don't care what the upper class thinks or fears, I don't care that "we" may not be an empire any longer, it may be that we can survive better without worrying what the rest of the world thinks of us, in fact the rest of the world will be pretty busy trying to stay alive, many won't have the luxury of our military or our money, but that was the norm before the US became the worlds policeman. Some are posting on the web sites that envision a huge "die-off "of the human species, and maybe this is the truth of our future and we just can't face the inevitable truth of our demise being so close at hand, but we all know that in the meantime, empire crashing aside we'll do as we see fit until we can no longer sustain ourselves, and that's the real human condition..... without the frosting...
... domestic divisions ... and divisive debates, often over remarkably irrelevant issues ...
e.g. definition of "empire" or what "saved" Europe ... or navel-gazing while the Turks come crashing at the gates and so on.
For decades now, US society has wasted enormous energies on such sterile debates, one of the victims has been the education system, not to mention the family.
Congress and the president are now in gridlock; the [US] system is flooded with corporate money meant to jam up the works; and there is little suggestion that any issues of significance, including our wars, our bloated national security state, our starved education system, and our antiquated energy supplies ...
... are being addressed by intelligent, and dare I say patriotic, people in power.
On a related note, incredibly, the author, and many US people, still believe in this propaganda about the US legal system. In my experience, it is just as corrupt, though perhaps in different ways, as in any other country.
Other factors in the decline, then, are the complexity of the tax system, the corruption of the legal system, the inefficiency and corruption of the financing of the medical system, the poverty of the education system, the poverty of family life, the utter economic and social nonsense of the suburban model, one of whose underlying factors is the ongoing racism that has seared the land from the country's inception, and the fact that it is not "politically correct" to debate any of these issues.
On top of that, return on investment, the glue that for decades had papered over a good portion of the country's many social cracks, is now much higher in many places abroad. So, on balance, who would invest?
No surprise, then, that many graduates in technology are returning to their home countries, corporations and their chiefs invest abroad, and even wealthy US citizens with resources to invest are reaching the point of renouncing citizenship largely because of the sheer burden of tax compliance, not so much tax rates, but reporting requirements. At the heart of the decline, though, is the cultural poverty that comes with excesses, in the case of the US excess consumerism, but maybe that has always been the case.
I have detected and been preparing for the decline for a long time, though I would prefer, for everyone's sake, that it continues to be slow and not disruptive. But the haughtiness of the US ruling classes may be too big of an obstacle for such a benign outcome. Good Luck!
Spoken like a true Puritan. Only certain subject matter is permitted, the rest is "trivial". Evil is defined by the Puritan speaker: The legal system is corrupt (no examples or supporting arguments given), the suburban model (whatever that means, exactly) represents "utter economic and social nonsense" (no examples or supporting arguments given), etc. Bottom line: the Puritan is in possession of the obvious and self-evident TRUTH, and all others are fools or worse. The above quoted post is not a discussion; it is a harangue.
What surprise me most about America is how America's capitalism does not seem to differ much from South Korea's or Russia's capitalist system. That is to say, a small cadre of oligarchic tycoons seem to dominate many industries and also play huge roles in the government. For all America talks about how "free" its free market is, it doesn't seem to differ much from the so called "unfree", "crony" capitalist economies that America likes to condemn.
The difference is that governments in both countries have a much tighter control of their nation's economic policies than the American government does. They tend to work with industry to determine economic policies that are in the best interest of the country.
In America there really isn't a national economic policy per se. Corporations are free to do as they please aside from some national security considerations. Right now corporations in America are investing much more in other countries around the world than they are in the United States.
I would argue that the United States will more likely balkanize into multiple states centered around shared values. If that happens, I'm putting my money on the Southern United States, the Great Plains, and Texas as having retained the greatest degree of economic power in terms of manufacturing, natural resources, agricultural capacity, water, and social cohesiveness. Over the past three decades, these parts of the country have been quietly developing into quite strong manufacturers, while the Rust Belt, Northeast, Mid Atlantic and West Coast have not.
Now, someone will inevitably misunderstand my argument. That is NOT to say that those other regions do not have manufacturing capacity. However, the three I have cited have it all, while the other regions are missing important elements for a self-sufficient and growing economy.
A balkanized set of states operating independently would never be as strong as the United States as a whole. Texas will have water resource problems associated with population growth and the Great Plains states have no waterway or ports to transport goods outside North America. They are also vulnerable in terms of water supply. Also as presently constituted the Great Plains are primarily a one trick pony, agriculture. As far as manufacturing the Great Plains could not compete with major global players like China, and Germany, in terms of manufacturiing cost in respect to China and manufacutring expertise in respect to Germany.
As for the Southeast racial discrimination, poor school systems and a limited worldview would hold them back from economic progress.
We already have the means to produce grain without using any oil. All the farm equipment, grain trucks, just about any type of internal combution engine can be converted to run on ethanol and bio-diesel without too much difficulty. If we stop burning ethanol in our cars and used it for priority use, such as food production (should do that now), there would at least be enough to produce all the food we need and perhaps enough to distribute food within the lower 48.
This country has a way of pulling together, but only when we get knocked real hard. We can make any product that is too expensive to import, as America once made just about everything, we can do it again. Eco-extremists will have little influence when the lights go out. Coal, hydro-electric and nuclear power will be on the table again as viable energy alternatives if something better is not available. I think North America can be very self sustaining and does not need the rest of the world as much as people think. We have to be able to defend America from attack while we rebuild and reshape our government. We can flush the old guard out of congress and remove the lobbyists. Once we have nothing to lose, we have everything to gain. People do not like their standard of living to sharply decline. People will mob on D.C. and congress will be taking orders from a different clientele. We can have cheap and affordable healthcare, a top notch education system, an efficient form of government.
I refuse to believe that everyone is going to sit around with their thumbs up their butts doing nothing. At some point when it gets bad enough there will be alot of action. Americans are not going to let gangs steal and rape everything that isn't nailed down. Bad guys will be executed by the thousands, if the government won't do it, the people will. Private citizens will organize to protect their property and family. Unlike other countries, criminals do not have a monopoly on guns and knowledge of their effective use. I think the people that cling to guns and religion are going to win.
Most our problems can be solved by copying the best of what other countries are doing right. China's penal system, Europe and Japan medical system, the love and support of family that Mexico and latin american culture provides. If we placed our faith and obedience in the bible to half the degree that muslims do for the Quran, we could lift this sideshow culture we have back up by the bootstraps and give our family unit a victorian shot in the arm. Christmas is just around the corner and has me thinking more about the crusades this year, and less about Santa Clause.
I think the people that cling to guns and religion are going to win.
This is a frightening statement and thankfully does not reflect the world view of the majority of intelligent people. Guns and religion through the ages have done nothing but attempt to protect elite interests at the tragic expense and terror of the broader segment of humans. Religious wars have been inane and inhumane. And all so ironic, as Christianity is based on "brotherhood" and "love your neighbor." In the view you state, above, it would be an elite terrorist brotherhood and the manifesto would be "love and protect your neighbor if he is at the same level of wealth as you." This attitude reveals the hypocrisy behind rightwing organized religion and I don't even want to think about how many might subscribe.
Depending on the cost of fuel and thus transportation, they may not be for long...coming from Chile. What's wrong with Florida oranges??
While shopping at the corporate WF, I picked up a bag of frozen "California" veggies processed in China. Come on.
I don't know what's wrong with Florida or California oranges. Florida isn't that far away from Tennessee. I don't buy the bags of oranges because it's just me and I wouldn't eat them fast enough. But why do my onesy-twosy navel oranges have to come from Chile? They aren't "special" oranges or anything like that and they are medium sized.
Are we putting oranges in the gas tank these days?
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Puritans still with us!
