So is the USA on a long slow path to being a poor nation?

[TwixVoy]

Poll question: So is the USA on a long slow path to being a poor nation?

About a year ago I posted that I felt the United States would not see a complete and sudden financial collapse. Instead I felt we were going to be looking at a long multi-year slow downturn for the poor and middle class. The downturn would be slow enough that most people would "feel that something was wrong", but not be fully aware of it. Eventually this would result in this country essentially being a poor nation, and being a poor nation would be the status quo for many many years after.

So here we are a year later.

Do DUers feel this is the path we are on? Or are we on the path to recovery?

[T Wolf]

1. If only because of the utter greed and lack of "humanity" among rethugs, they will

"screw the pooch" because multi-millions per year is not enough to satisfy their avarice.

They are not smart enough to take the country up to the edge of destruction, because that will mean that they are leaving some scraps on the floor to be fought over by the peons. That cannot be allowed to happen because they must have it ALL!

[onehandle]

2. A college professor friend of mine told me that we would be the Mexico of the 21st century.

This was in the 90s during the Clinton boom economy.

I laughed.

Not anymore.

I think we will recover, but things will never be the same again.

[ixion]

3. in a historical context, we are rocketing towards it

nothing really slow about it, imo...

[Echo In Light]

14. First thing I thought too when I read the options. I s'pose many prefer the 'many yr' comfort buffer

[Greyhound]

4. It will be a series of shocks and steady, though rapid, decline.

OTOH, we might be able to prop it up for another round (there's enough capital left in gullible hands), in which case, we've got another decade or so, but it is happening. None of the fundamentals have changed and the rest of the world is just about fed up with our insanity. We've been furiously working ourselves into irrelevance for 30 years and the job is almost finished.

[pampango]

5. If we get our act together like Europe and Canada have done, the future looks good.

If we keep on the current path, the future doesn't look so good. It's up to us.

[upi402]

6. Corporatist Dems will tear the phone book in 1/2 one page at a time

Whereas, Republicans would douse it with gas and toss their lighted cigar on it.

Pick your poison I'd say.

[Hawkowl]

7. Short high speed explosive denouement

We have been on a long slow path to a poor nation since Reagan set about destroying government with massive deficit spending and rewarding the military industrial complex. Unfortunately, our future has arrived. Recoveries, stock market, interest rates don't mean shit anymore. It is all about wages and income distribution. Our economy was like a pyramid with the lowly wage earners and small business owners making up a huge base on which to build the FIRE (finance insurance real estate) economy. At the very top of the pyramid are the owners. We no longer make much of anything and the FIRE economy needs fuel, at least oxygen to continue burning. Real unemployment will rise this year. Wages will remain flat or continue to decline in real terms. If we can't take the money away from the banksters and rebuild the base of our pyramid economy to actually make real goods and services and sell them to the rest of the world--the US will NEVER recover. The Soviet Union didn't recover. The British, Roman, Ottoman empires didn't recover. And it is apparent to me, that at least under the weak, ineffectual emperor Obama, the US has made zero progress at halting its breakneck pace to history's dustbin of oblivion.

All this kabuki theatre by Bernake, Giethner, Summers and yes, Obama, is simply a smoke screen for one last orgy of theft and greed by the banksters. The US will be lucky to resemble a third world country such as Mexico in the next 10 years. A country of extreme wealth concentrated in a few families hands while 18000 people a year are killed in gangland drug wars fighting over scraps to feed themselves.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. As the U.S. empire declines economic shocks are inevitable...

There are perks ot powr, and when those perks are pulled, we the people feel it.

[treestar]

9. No.

We could be starting to be more average. That would be nice. Imagine not having to be world policeman.

We don't have to be Number One about everything. Just be a nice place to live. Like so many other countries that are not Number One.

[damntexdem]

10. Hmm, I'm not really sure ... how slow it will be.

After all, the death spiral could be a faster one.

[readmoreoften]

11. I'm not sure how slow the path will be. It will probably pick up for bit, then head back down.

Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer.

[Fresh_Start]

12. nothing long and slow about it nt

nt

[cutlassmama]

13. 8-10 more years of decline.

[Ishoutandscream2]

15. Continued increase in military spending, more wars

More decline.

[dkofos]

16. YES

And it started in 1980.

[DemReadingDU]

17. We're living in a global financial Ponzi world

and after it implodes, we're all going to end up like Bernie Madoff victims

edit: This Ponzi is HUGE, it's been building for 50 years. We've had the best party ever, and then we'll all be suffering the worst hangover.

[Raineyb]

18. Define slow. I'm not sure I'd describe the decline as slow. n/t

[applegrove]

19. If Obama wins in 2012 then the USA will be on the road to recovery.

[ibegurpard]

20. Long and slow?

It's happening faster than I could have ever imagined.

[WinkyDink]

21. Not slow, baby; not slow.

[troubledamerican]

22. Not slow