Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SilentZ who wrote (318182)	1/1/2007 7:15:20 PM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 1572095

Maybe so. But all the great powers today are either Democracies with market economies or have market economies that are moving the gov't towards Democracy. The two go hand in hand. The rest who don't have market economies like many in the Middle East have to hold onto power through sheer force during the bad economic times and through generous handouts/bribes when economic times are good. And given that most are dependent on one commodity for their economic good times, they are usually short lived. As an example, let's just watch Iran and see what happens over the next 20 years. My guess is there will be big changes. Reform is coming to Iran even though it may not seem like it today with that Amhadinejad lunatic in power. But that's what's great about idiots like him. They unify the opposition.

To: SilentZ who wrote (318182)	1/2/2007 4:09:36 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572095

I'm not saying that I'd rather have such an autocracy than a reasonable free-market economy and a lack of repression, but we're working with a really small sample size and most of us are American exceptionalists... America has lasted for almost 250 years possibly because of many factors other than its nature of government and economy (such as its geographic isolation, wealth of natural resources, immense size, and its ruthless, expansionary nature). Whoa! Heresy! Suck on some pepper than wipe your mouth out with soap. Dem are fightin' words! Well said. Too many people have bought into the myth that we are God's country and that its His will we succeed in this world. In fact, we are one of the more fortunate countries in the world blessed with resources that other countries only dream of having. We are also fortunate that our founders encouraged us to take a quasi democratic route and were not so corrupted that they supported that approach while they lived. We are also fortunate to have developed at a time that it took many months to reach us from Europe and Asia. So many fortuitous events have blunted the fall out from our significant mistakes of which there have been a few.