And the scary thing is that hardly anyone recognizes that, and this country goes on behaving as if it were still 1955 or maybe 1962. We spend what is it, a full half of our budget on the military? And it's commonly believed we can't afford to continue funding social security. What nonsense!
Speaking of the military, we spend as much as the entire rest of the world combined on military. Why would anyone with more than two gray cells to rub together think that makes sense? I wonder exactly when our military threshold passed that point. I suspect that would give you an accurate date of the start of our decline.
During the 1950's and 1960's it was widely believed that there was a "missile gap", that the evil Soviet Union had more missiles than we did. Of course, those who were in a position to know how many missiles they actually had, knew it was a lie. But never spoke up publicly. So defense spending increased.
Fast forward to today. It's widely believed that Iran is getting ready any day now to build a nuclear bomb. I sincerely doubt they're any closer than some high school chemistry class in Altoona, PA is. But the citizenry must be kept fearful at all times so that all of those defense contractors and all of those generals and all of those everyone connected to military spending can continue to get their share. Meanwhile, schools are underfunded. People declare bankruptcy over medical costs, even when they have insurance. College is becoming more and more unaffordable.
Are our best days behind us? Probably. It's almost impossible for me to imagine the kind of changes that can turn this all around.
And wouldn't it be nice if a few years down the road someone on DU could find this post of mine and chide me for a lack of imagination.
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