America’s decline will not be easily reversed

[harry123]

I want to post this blog entry of mine here because I very much believe this country is headed in the wrong direction and we need to have leadership that recognizes the acuteness of our situation in education, economics, moral authority, you name it. I do think Barack Obama is much more aware of what needs to be done to begin to bring the United States back into prominence again.

Edward


http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/08/americas-decline-will-not-be-easily.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. You say decline. I say

screaming nosedive.

It's like trying to reverse a ballistic missile on re-entry.

[harry123]

2. What's the remedy?

Are you saying there is no remedy? Give up?

[bemildred]

3. Pretty much, we are fucked.

This does not mean we should not do what we can, but I think the first thing to do is to start being realistic about the way our ruling "elites" - and I use that term loosely - have fucked us and themselves too. It's going to get a whole bunch worse before it shows any signs of getting better.

[harry123]

4. I'd agree with that

I'd pretty much agree with that assessment as dour as it is but I also agree that we should do something. For me that something is going back to being a more open society with a more progressive tax policy and an economic policy that stresses investment over consumption.

[bemildred]

6. The first thing is take our government back, and throw some weasels in jail.

As a warning to the rest. But it is not clear at this point whether the American People, speaking collectively, are up to the task. Democratic government requires an informed and engaged electorate.

[harry123]

7. Your assessment of your fellow American is pretty jaded

Unfortunately I often feel the same way. We're more interested in Dancing with the Stars than actually looking around us and taking an informed view of the world. Apathy is the status quo for the American electorate. It has the feel of a society in permanent decline.

Here's my populist take on how the elites have taken advantage of this apathy to promote their own agenda.

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/03/populist-interpretation-of-latest-boom.html

[Jackpine Radical]

5. No, I'm not saying that.

I do expect a crash, but the species will probably survive. I think the dominant interests are too calcified to change in time & this may in a sense give a new chance for the rest of us. Have you read Ravi Batra's book The Coming Golden Age?

[harry123]

8. I haven't read that

What does he have to say?

[Jackpine Radical]

9. I stole this from Amazon...

From Publishers Weekly
After nearly 20 years of predicting economic disaster, Batra (Greenspan's Fraud, etc.) suggests a reversal, though only after we rise up in revolution against the forces of chaos. This time, he charges politicians, academics, business executives and rich people with "corruption," defined as "any policy that enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor and the middle class." Among the practices Batra censures are raising congressional pay but not the minimum wage, and cutting income taxes while increasing Social Security taxes.

[harry123]

10. Sounds like something I would write.

I'll have to take a look at that. In the meantime, I continue to be disappointed by the apathy in America. One would have expected a bit more of the 'rising up in revolution' by now.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. No foolin'.

And I do find Batra's book very interesting. A lot of critics blast him for not having been entirely accurate in previous forecasts. Personally, I don't see that as much of a failing; he's discussing economic & social forces, not fortunetelling. There's a big difference between understanding the dynamics of a hurricane and predicting when and where one will come to land.