asch

USN_Squid

I'll have to find some time to read the whole report. The editorial comment from Slate isn't usually worth the time.

__________________

Tempus

I believe this was inevitable. No one superpower can exist on its own for long. With the huge populations of China and India (and the economic power they can bring), a well organized EU, and wordwide disdain for the policies of the US, it's only a matter a time. And as nuclear proliferation increases, everybody becomres a player in the global balance of power.

We won't even get into the erosion of America's intellectual future, as we are no longer the leader in many technological fields as we used to be. Schools are dumbed down, expectations for the youth here are low, and we're basically choking on our own fat of excess.

USN_Squid

Yeah, we suck.

__________________

CingularDuality

It doesn't matter... Didn't you see the Day After Tomorrow? Global warming is going to trigger an ice age that will basically end the world as we know it before the US loses worldwide dominance...

__________________

Become a supporting member! -- Shop at the Tactical Market!

Take the world's smallest political quiz! "I was touched by His Noodly Appendage."
TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

Wyzcrak

He's here all week, folks.

Try the chicken.

__________________
Steam Community? Add me. | Join #tacticalgamer | Search Results Legend | New Posts Forum Filter | Postbox Toggle | Live Thread Review | One Line Results | Free Remote, Encrypted Backup

Darkilla: In short, NS is pretty much really fast chess. With guns. Apophis: I haven't seen anyone say that SM's are better than non-SMs. Nordbomber: This is THE first server I've seen where either side can comeback from out of seemingly nowhere with the right teamwork. en4rcment: I have NEVER experienced the type of gameplay that I have found here. Nightly I am amazed at the personalities and gaming talent. Root: Welcome to TG. Feel free to punctuate your sentences correctly. Monkerz: Its gonna take all my skills to beat those boys off in the future.

TheFeniX

And also, Wolves will go crazy. Not because we need a plot-device other than to sit around and wait for Mr. Quaid to save us, but because Wolves prefer to hunt live and kicking prey rather than scavenge and take on humans (even though they are scared to Hell of us) even when there are millions of dead bodies lying around the streets of New York.

__________________

blackjackel

I predict the US will lose world dominance in 10 years or less.

__________________
Prejudice sucks:
Do not judge me by my past, for I have changed.

DarkHunter == Blackjackel.

leejo

is it 1979 or something?

CingularDuality

Nah, don't you guys know about the "peak oil" crisis that it about to happen? America's military will ensure that we retain our dominance against everyone except perhaps the Chinese...

__________________

Become a supporting member! -- Shop at the Tactical Market!

Take the world's smallest political quiz! "I was touched by His Noodly Appendage."
TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

grey

Hmmm, maybe I should honestly consider moving to China

It doesn't surprise me if we lose global dominance. We are killing chances for success in the way that the entire budget is done. First thing that gets spending cuts is ALWAYS education.

I have seen this first and foremost in the state I live in. Apparently our budget was in a crucial defecit, and some money needed to be recovered in order to help balance it. One hundred million dollars was instantly stripped away from education benefits, and many local schools in the county I lived in suffered from it greatly. There were schools that had to cut all extra curricular activities, such as all sports, buses, field trips, even the cafeteria. Every one of those school districts near me wound up having to add tax ballots to be voted on to gain further support from the population, because some of these same schools were looking at having to close down.

Yet another reason why our great country is falling out of line and spiraling downward is a little nasty thing known as "job outsourcing". As the financial district puts it, this term is not evil and does not hurt us like you think it does. In fact, they say it was to "save" the jobs that were moved overseas to other countries. The only thing that was "saved" is the money going to people who own the factories that moved overseas and the other jobs that moved overseas is still in control of the business owners. The jobs were taken from us, and given to someone else. But, there is a reason for this.
When one thinks of the economy, you have to consider the entire world. Because of the global economy and how it functions, you can move your entire factory to somewhere else where the labor laws and pollution laws are very lax, and make more money off of what you were doing in America. The reason: the targeted selling audience is still America. Whether the factory now reside in China, India, Mexico, ect ect does not matter. What DOES matter is the money is still in control of everyone who originally owned the factory, still trying to sell the same product made at much cheaper production. Only thing is, they never dropped the selling price for America.

On topic of the world economy, this "job outsourcing" would have been inevitable. Consider this: the wages and overhead of a factory in America vs. a factory in China that makes the same goods. The factory in China has much cheaper overhead and wages than an American one. So if the Chinese factory sells its product to America, the American factory cannot possibly compete with how cheap the Chinese products are, and would either A: close down, or B: oursource the entire factory to China in order to compete with this other Chinese factory on the same level of the playing field.

The sad thing about all of this, is that in order for America to survive, we have to become highly developed in specialized fields. One must consider a possibility that ALL production factories could be closed down and moved overseas. The only way to become highly specialized is if the majority of us go to secondary education of some form. But here is the catch: not one "economical forecaster" has had the decency to spill the beans to the American public of what must be done in order for us to continue to survive. Not even our own government has the balls to speak on such a thing.
Not only that, one must consider the possibility of even being able to find jobs outside of America for these highly specialized fields.

As an example, the Philippines took such an approach. They have more people than they have jobs, and had to do something. So, the government created an Overseas Workers program where college educated individuals could get hired by companies all around the globe. They are still citizens of the Philippines, and still pay some form of tax to their government. Because of the country they are originally from, they can get hired at cheaper wages than an American counterpart. I personally know such a person who is a Civil Engineer, working for a company out of Sweden. They hired this person simply because an American Civil Engineer would want too much money. It doesn't matter to this filipina, because when she gets home the currency exchange for Euro to Filipino Peso's is staggering.

To make this short, America is going to lose and lose badly. Too much money is in too few hands, the economy is unstable, and the future doesn't look to bright. We have morons for politicians, and backstabbers who "inform" the politicians what to do. Our entire election system is corrupt, simply due to the sheer volume of money it takes to run for an election of office. Lets say I gave my local Governor 45 million dollars to get him re-elected. You bet your ass he does what I say, and when.

We need more than a new way of life, we all need re-educated in how to live in the rapildy changing world, for its consequences to America will be terrible to behold.

__________________
"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who know binary and those who do not. "

Wintermute

This has already happened to us. British land is still farmed, but very few people work in the industry now. We used to be a big industrial manufacturer but the shipyards, docks, coal mines and car plants are all but gone. Instead banking is one of our biggest industries and the government is trying to send 50% of the population to higher education. Education itself is a big industry with up a third of students being from abroad and paying very large fees to British universities.

Those that don't go to university are encouraged to get vocational and skills training. What little manual labour there is left to do in Britian is done by immigrants who are the only ones willing to do it.

It would only take one bill to curb that significantly. Simply tighten the rules and cap the amount of money a party can spend on an election campaign.

__________________
Wintermute

Play EVE online. It's like being an accounting addict in space.

www.MakePovertyHistory.com

USN_Squid

Man, so much doom and gloom. Makes me want to go sit in the corner with my blankey.

We spend more and more on education every year. We spend more per student than we ever have. Wash. DC is a good example. They spend the most per student, and have the worst results in the nation. Money is not the answer. Choice, competition and vouchers are. What's wrong with merit based promotion and pay among teachers? Ask the NEA.

Outsourcing is not inherently evil. The democrats have done a good job demonizing it, however. The State of Colorado has moved their call center to India, so they are spending less of my tax dollars.....that's good. And what kind of equipment do they use in those call centers? Good ole technology from the US of A. The US unemployment rate is better now than the "boom" of the 90s. So where's the devastation from outsourcing? As an aside, EVERY country is losing manufacturing jobs. China lost 11% last year! Technology and productivity gains are to blame more than outsourcing.

When I started University at the Business School at CU in 1995, Japan was the bogey man. All we did was study TQM, and Japanese style business organization. They were poised to take over the world and were smoking us in efficiency and productivity. What happened to them?

__________________

leejo

When Carter was elected the USA was already in decline, until he was tossed out and the USA was led by a crazy, ignorant fool who decided to take on the USSR instead of making deals with them. He was going to get us all blown up and his disastrous economic policies were supposed to bankrupt us all.

Then the USA became to world's only superpower.

Now we have another crazy fool leading us all to disaster, recklessly disregarding the sage advice of people much wiser than he who tell him we're on the brink of economic collapse and that really nothing can be done to stop the inevitable.

Thank God, or your dog, or whatever you believe in that there are fools who are willing to keep trying to succeed when smart people tell them it's impossible. The USA and the world will be fine as long as they're around.

Wintermute

You regard the cold war as a success? The US would have come out on top even if it largely ignored the USSR because it has an excellent economic and governmental model whereas the USSR was corruption and dictatorship built upon impractical idealism.

__________________
Wintermute

Play EVE online. It's like being an accounting addict in space.

www.MakePovertyHistory.com