The American Empire is doomed. Oh, it will take its time, but rest assured the U.S. economy will completely collapse sometime within this century. The main reason is simple: politicians care more about their reelections and having 'their' party in power than they do about America. They simply will not do what is needed to resolve our biggest problems.
I view our national debt issues like this:
You charge a thousand dollars to your credit card each and every month without fail. You realize that you are in serious financial trouble because of this. So, you decide to forgo buying a cup of coffee once a week.
Yep, that will certainly help.
Or this:
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| Mr. Defense Budget and Mr. All The Rest |
You have the big, real financial problem standing there (primarily the military budget, though health care and social security are a part of it). You know for a fact that if you want any chance at all of saving your country you need to tell that big guy to start losing a few pounds. Instead, you tell the skinny guy he must drop a hundred pounds. Make sense? No, of course not. Yet this is exactly what our Congress is doing to us. Oh no, we can't cut the military budget, even though that is what is sinking us. That would keep me from getting reelected. How about we cut things like diplomacy, even though it is already stretched thin and is but a tiny drop in the vast ocean of defense spending.
Sorry, but magic doesn't actually exist in the world. I don't see this as a political post, as the problem we face is one that affects all of us regardless of ideology. President Eisenhower was once our supreme commander of the armed forces, yet
he warned us in no uncertain terms not to allow the bloating of the military-industrial complex, and we have done exactly what he warned us not to do.
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Unfortunately, I think this is a crisis that is affecting more than just the US, and politicians are more or less the same in most democratic countries. It's like the old Roman republic system, where personal glory and status overpower the need to do what is best for the nation and it's people. More often than not, people will look out for #1, and when you're the most powerful man in the country, this applies even more so.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jamie, and this is why every empire falls. Sadly, I think we could prevent our fall if we could remove the idea of professional politicians from our land. I think we would do better by using regular citizens with no reelection possible, much like jury duty.
ReplyDeleteThe UK is exactly the same. Instead of cutting back on the 'coffee' they've decided to sell and scrap things that our military may actually need, such as our air craft carriers and ships, etc. God knows what we'll do should we ever go to war with someone...Let's all dig out our kitchen knives, yeah???
ReplyDeleteYes, we do need a strong military. However, we have bloated our military to the point that it's budget is crippling us. We can shave off a good bit of that budget and still be by far the strongest military in the world.
ReplyDeleteAs a military brat, I do see the value and am glad ours is strong. I do see a lot of handout programs that need to be cut, though.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to get into politics online, but I will say this: the UK and the US are very different. Don't get me wrong, they both have problems, but the UK spends a fraction of what the US does, percentage wise, on "Defense." Which is a really funny term because it often means Offense.
ReplyDeleteI understand how scary terrorism is, but is it really our job to spend billions of dollars and thousands of lives telling the rest of the world how to run their countries? If we weren't trying to set up puppet regimes all over the Middle East for the last 50 years the terrorist probably never would have gotten pissed at us.
Yes that is an extreme oversimplification.
And I agree we should spend more on diplomacy, not less, and not just because my friend Ted is a diplomat.
And I realize I just got into politics, for a second, and made a liar out of myself. Sorry.
Also Ted, I'm curious to know what you think about that US "Diplomat" who got arrested for a double murder in Pakistan. I'm sure you can't discuss it online, but I wonder what's going on there.
ReplyDeleteyeah... i'm with what matt originally said. people always get mad at me when we discuss politics. so, i'm going to bow out of this one!
ReplyDeleteanyway, good morning ted! :D
Victoria, it is actually evening here! I do wonder why it is considered politics really when the post is not aimed at any party, but is rather aimed at a massive problem that faces all of us as simple Americans?
ReplyDeleteTed-I'd like to nominate you as president. Are you available? It's baffling to me that people won't see this. American thinks they need a large enough defense budget to force all the OTHER countries in the world to deal with their problems the way we would and frankly we BOTH can't afford it and DON'T have the right. We need to step back and wait to be ASKED for help, and THEN do it as part of an international cooperative effort.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hart, but I have reached the point where I don't trust anyone who would want to be president. What sane person would want to be put through what our media and society do to any president these days? Also, no atheist can be elected, because obviously only religious folks can be trusted with anything.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least your budget breakdown isn't as bad as North Korea's. Yet.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before and I'll say it again. The election system is horribly flawed. Power attracts the corruptible, as Frank Herbert wrote in Dune, and our government is full of maladjusted wannabe despots.
ReplyDeleteI really think that our best bet is a gladiatorial arena system. Let anyone who wants to represent the people prove it in combat to the death. Then we'll see what they're really made of, literally. ;)
I'm not sure what sane person would want to run for any office at this point.
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea, Subcreator! I'm sure we all wish we could at least do that with the lawyers (and perhaps car mechanics).
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking it would be better to have Congress run like jury duty, with no elections or reelections, just people serving out their one term each. I'm not sure whether it should be limited or not, say to people with college degrees.
I'd actually like to see a president with no religious affiliations whatsoever. How refreshing that would be! And I completely agree with your thoughts on our bloated 'defense' budget. Strange how the tea party never mentions cutting it when they talk about fiscal responsibility. Actually, I don't think anyone ever talks about it! At least, not if they want to get elected.
ReplyDeleteoh, and what matthew said.
ps and I'm not sure either about your idea of limiting serving to those with college degrees. My brother never went to college but he's pretty damn smart. Maybe a test of some sort.
ReplyDeletemshatch, I know what you mean. There are always exceptions that prove the rule. A test would be fine with me, except that it would suck to have to take it when you are already pissed off at getting picked to have to do the duty in the first place. I suppose it could just be given to everyone in their senior year of high school, and then again in college a time or two.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to see where you got your figures. I've been reviewing the Federal budget over the last few years and the Defense budget has been consistently low (and dropping) while social programs have been on a steep rise. In fact, the latest chart I've looked at shows social program spending at double the Defense budget.
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact is, the vast majority of money within the defense budget goes to pay the salaries of soldiers. I don't know if cutting that would be in anyone's best interest, and certainly not the economy's.
Also, the Federal government was established to provide defense for the States. It was never initially intended that the Federal government start paying for social programs, etc. that should stay within the States' power.
Defense is consistently low and social security is double? I don't know what you are looking at, but that is not even close. Any basic budget chart will show that. Here is one from a good source - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html?src=tp
ReplyDeleteYou also need to do some checking on what our defense spending was over the past fifty years versus now, or even just what has happened with it in the past decade.