The United States in severe decline

A friend of mine keep telling me all these stories about how in a few years United States will fall apart. He said it will happen in a few years time. I'm very skeptical. What do you think?

• is your friend a FOXNEWS (ha) viewer?

• I hate to say, but I think your friend is right. This debt will kill us and any power we have.

• Seems to me it's happening now. We have a government which lies to us, hoping things will change before the inevitable happens. We are fucked.

• It's over, OP.

• TOTAL refuck thread. F-

• R5. What an insightful reply? Are you an academic?

• I'm definitely not a Faux News viewer, but I definitely think this country is going down the drain. It's definitely not the land of opportunity anymore - people can't even find jobs with a decent wage anymore.

• Years ago, some academic type predicted that the next "boat people" would be destitute, unemployed Americans fleeing the USA in search of jobs and political stability in other countries, that there'd be millions of these American economic/political refugees wandering the world. ("boat people" is a reference to Vietnamese refugees, for all the younger DLers who may not've heard of the term.) I think the academic may've been Carroll Quigley, can't remember.

• Tea Party troll thread.

• Why do you think so, R9?

• If you don't realize that within the next 25 years we will experience a revolution you are livng in another world. We are rapidly devolving to a two-class system and, especially when the new majority of the lower class was once middle class, you have the probability of revolution. And to call someone a freeper because they state the obvious is spurious at best and reflects an overriding blindness and apathy at events surrounding us. It doesn't matter what party you espouse, what is happening is happening. What will happen will happen.

  Anon

• No, R11, a revolution is already happening.

• If so, we have only ourselves to blame. With our American "exceptionalism" mentality and our overwhelming need to have the biggest and the best (despite the cost), we have for much too long assumed that we were omnipotent. All of that, coupled with a nose-in-air disdain for other cultures, a perverse sort of pride in being ignorant, uninformed and without class, not to mention a reverence for the lower common denominator both in our cultural icons and our entertainment venues...and, last but not least, a selfish, narcissistic attitude toward those less fortunate...well, who could be surprised that we're in decline? No country can thrive and prosper with such a population of dunces.

• Why is having a revolution bad?

• Will it start when Hispanics reach a majority in the Southwest (as they will in California very soon) and try to bring it back into Mexico? I think all it would take is another economic depression. Then the South would secede, Quebec would secede from Canada and all hell breaks loose. Does anyone else think that is a viable scenario this century?

  anonymous

• R2, The debt will not kill us- rather how we handle the debt may cause trouble. We have had more debt as a % of GNOin our past. Shrinking govt spending during a recession is a good way to cause worse recession or depression. Hoover did so in about 1930- FDR turned it around with the new deal then bungled when he tried austerity in '37- finally the huge spending or the war put us on our way. UK was coming out of the recession nicely until the Tories sent them back with austerity- austerity is killing Spain right now and rhey did not have big debt to begin with. Once recovered from recession- THEN is the time to cut spending not during. The Repub are just willfully ignorant and/or using the debt to shrink govt. Of course the debt they are holding Obama responsible for is from their two unbudgeted wars, tax cuts during wartime (a first in Anerivan history) and of course reduced revenue caused by W's Great Recession. The whole thing is astounding really.

• It's true, OP. you should kill yourself now.

• Yes, the greed and corrupt behaviour of certain individuals (like the 1% and the government representatives they have in their pocket) will put the USA in the same bankrupt place as Greece is now with the only difference that USA can't expect handouts from the EU so they do what they think is best for them: Start a lucrative war. One's (financial) misery is another one's financial gain.

• The globalization that Thomas Friedman celebrated in all those bestsellers has turned out to be a global ripoff facilitated by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, in which an elite international group of corporations and financial institutions acquire wealth and power (especially power over governments) with the goal of reducing the vast majority of humans, including Americans, to either subsistence-level survival or actual starvation.

• The revolution will officially begin when they start to draft girls. Most families cannot afford to relocate, so there will be some kind of tax revolt or something. Possible riots in the streets, I don't know.

  hands off my daughter

• People have been saying that for the past 50 years. It was first said by people opposing women's rights when women started burning their bras in public. Then, it was said by people opposing minority rights, when Johnson sent troops to Little Rock. ... ... It is nothing more that the "Dooms Day Preparers" in politis. Nothing new.

• p.s. It is not that the US is going down. It is just other countries are catching up. We just need to learn to live with other newly rich nations and share natural resources wisely.

  R21

• I do see that the US is in decline but it's hard to pinpoint the multitude of reasons. I think a big factor is our culture. We do not respect ourselves and each other. The biggest harm to the image of the US in terms of culture has been trashy reality shows. The Kardashians, Jersey Shore, [insert past and present trashy reality shows] is the image of the US that we're giving the rest of the world. Another factor is our ignorance. We are simply a myopic culture that is not aware that the rest of the world exists. What we know of the ME is because of our involvement in "the war on terror." For example, the New Yorker who went missing and was found dead in Turkey displays some ignorant about the country. Many people commenting that "midde eastern country Turkey is violent and not safe for tourist and how stupid was the woman to set out on her own. That can't be further from the truth. First, Turkey is in Eastern Europe. It's not a ME country. Second, Turkey is very modernized and very safe for tourists. American ignorance knows no bound.

• R15, I saw that Glenn Beck is planning on building a planned community, a refuge for people like you and him. You should check into investing.

• As long as the 2 income household remains the norm and the war on drugs continues unabated, it remains a likely scenario.

• [quote]It is just other countries are catching up. In what way? Buy making it impossible for its citizens to have access to affordable healthcare or destroy their education system to groom mental retards?

• Americans will never vote for a candidate who says they are going down the shoot. They only vote for candidates who insist that they are the greatest people in the world, if not for the other candidate(s).

  Marko%20Ruvio

• Isn't this just history repeating itself? I don't think everyone in this thread is blaming Obama/Democrats for our declining civilization. I think we're in a cycle of decline because as a society we've largely become fat, dumb, and happy. It may be another 20 or 30 years out, but I do think we're heading downward.

• The american masses have embraced dumbness and look down on the educated. You have turned over all governmental power to the vastly wealthy corporate lackeys. Your brief time as the ruler of the planet is officially over but your gov't refuses to relinquish the title. You will soon get your asses handed to you and it cannot happen soon enough for the rest of us on the planet.

  buh%20byeeee

• Only snobs want our children to go to college.

  Rick Santorum