Are the glory days of the U.S. over?

[KlatooBNikto]

Right after WWII, this country reigned supreme.Its military power was unchallenged.Its automotive, aircraft and general industry were the envy of the world. That outlook continued until th early 80's when, one by one, the industries became loaded with debt,burdened by egotistical CEOs, and assaulted by more hungry competitors from around the world. The world learned that the trick to dominating any industry is to educate the people and empower them with capital so their ideas can be brought to the marketplace.India, China, Japan, Korea and increasingly Brazil, Argentina, Chile are kicking our ass after learning from our playbook.

We who have taught these countries to value their own people and empower them are going the other way, treating our own people as a burden and destroying the hopes of our children by throwing our money after phony wars waged for the benefit of the rich.

There is an Arab proverb that goes something like this. "If a man has his health, he has hope.When he has hope he has everything" These Republicans have committed the crime of destroying the hopes of millions. And destroyed the one country that was truly the hope of mankind for many years. I cannot forgive them for that crime.

[Benhurst]

1. Yes. Next question.

[KlatooBNikto]

2. You know I realized something.It was not even the fact we were the

richest country at one time that mattered to most people.The sense that we were on the right side and all of us were working together to accomplish the ideals we believed in mattered to people.The loss of that sense of belonging is very evident when I talk to people.

[BeFree]

15. We are a divided nation

Very good point, Klatoo, the sense that we are in this together has been destroyed. It's almost: "Every man for himself", eh?

Why are we so divided, when our pledge so clearly states that we are; "One Nation, ... indivisable, with Liberty and Justice for All"?

In this time of talk about using the 'Nuclear Option', it seems to me the dividers are not willing to compromise and make a real effort to get along for the betterment of the greater public.

"I am a Uniter"....GWB campaign of 2000, :puke:

[coloradodem2005]

3. I agree with you 100%.

They also almost literally are destroying the health of millions in this country too.

[ugarte]

4. We've blown our inheritance on the war machine

Think of the trillions of dollars we've plowed into wasteful weapons systems and where that money could have gone in terms of training and education and our crumbling infrastructure.

[raccoon]

5. I think they are.

The zenith of America's glory days was in the '50s and '60s.

The national mood was so different, so optimistic. It seemed that things would just keep getting better. I think for a while that many people thought the suckin' '70s were an aberration, and that one day things would get back to "normal." Alas, it was not so, as the '50s and '60s were not normal--they were an aberration.

[Mist]

11. Yep-country started economic nosedive in the '70's

gas lines, "stagflation," shrinking job market.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I agree that we've lost our optimism and our belief

that it was possible to make things better. The Reagan administration started the litany of "Don't be an idealist. Just do what you can for yourself," and it has continued since then.

We've also lost our energy. These days, the economic energy is in Asia and Western Europe, and the political energy is in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

[Stirk]

7. Yes, they are. And we'll all be better off for it in the long run.

When our leaders can't afford to play empire, things will start getting better. The average person in Britain today seems to be alot better off than they ever were under their "glorious" empire.

[KlatooBNikto]

9. That is my hope too. That we will simply run out of money to play

the big shots. When we finally learn to be just one among equals and treat the rest of humanity as our equals, we and the entire world will be bettr off.

[Double T]

8. Yes, For Now. We Need New Leaders With A Vision For Making Our Country

...Great Again. Corporate America And Wall Street Have Run One Of The Finest Achievements In Modern History Into The Ground. When The All Mighty Dollar Supersedes All Else, You End Up Where We Are Now And It Is Not Pretty.

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. The Empire has entered the phase of decline.

It happened to the Romans, it happened to the British. Now it's happening to the United States. The wheel of history turns, and the same spoke keeps coming up. The US learned from the British, and did it better; where did you think our industry and capitalism came from? British industry was, once upon a time, the envy of the world; Great Britain was "the world's workshop", Sheffield steel and the ships and guns it built extended the British reach to encompass one-quarter of the globe in the nineteenth century. Ruinous wars and economic competition from upstarts like Germany and America broke the Empire.

Our Empire was built on commerce, like our great predecessor in the peak-seat of global power; and, like them, in the decline of our industry and the weakening of our powers we try to reassert our tenuous control through the ill-considered use of an overextended military to fight ultimately unwinnable wars in far-off and hostile lands, whilst our factories are idled, our treasury emptied and the burdens of maintaining the imperial façade drown us in ruinous and unsustainable debt.

This was inevitable; nothing lasts forever.

[mmonk]

12. Yes

and this administration is causing the decline to be rapid.

[Pithy Cherub]

13. "Collapse" by Jared Diamond describes this in precise detail

about how societies get into this condition. He ends on a somewhat hopeful note.

America has all of these advantages but is not focused on resolving the core issues. It (the current political 'leadership') is focused on resolving issues that only matter to their limited purviews or constituencies. The example in the book of Easter Island as a society diasappearing as the resources are consumed without thought to replinishment is compelling. Easter Island once abundant with trees now has none and no people.

[0007]

14. ........1572 dead U.S soldiers for what? How many missing limbs,

eyes, part of their brains? Ten of thousands of Iraqis lay dead also for what? Democracy, Peace or Capitalism? What a spurious imitation if this is the answer!

Now we're the most hated nation on this planet. Is junior competing with men like Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini for notoriety?

[arwalden]

16. Absolutely... And Many Americans Can't Accept It...

... so they resort to bullying to try and reclaim/relive this country's former glory days.

At the current rate of political rot and religious extremism, our country will NOT survive as a single nation (or as our founding fathers intended). I honestly can't imagine this country celebrating it's "tri-centennial".