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

To: i-node who wrote (591563)	10/27/2010 10:18:18 AM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1583798

Is America In Decline? 24 Statistics About The United States Economy laboussole2012.wordpress.com Does anyone really want to hear that America is in decline? For decades, most of us have been raised to believe that the United States is « number one » and that anyone who doubts that fact is a « gloom and doomer » that should just pack up and move to « Russia » or « Iraq » or some other country where things are not nearly as good. But does it do us or future generations any good to ignore the very serious signs of trouble that are erupting all around us? The truth is that it is about time to wake up and admit how much trouble we are actually in. The U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt. The entire society is absolutely drowning in debt. We are being slaughtered in the arena of world trade, and every single month tens of billions of dollars (along with large numbers of factories and jobs) leave our shores for good. Our infrastructure is failing, our kids are less educated and our incomes are going down. We have serious, serious problems. At one time, the U.S. economy was so dominant that it was not even worth talking about who was in second place. That is no longer the case in 2010. Our forefathers handed us the greatest economic machine in history and we have allowed it to fall apart right in front of our eyes. A national economic crisis of historic proportions is getting worse with each passing month, and yet most of our leaders seem to be asleep at the switch. So is American in decline? Well, read the statistics below and decide for yourself. The reality is that when you start connecting the dots it gets really hard to deny what is going on. Urgent action must be taken if things are going to be turned around. It is time to get our heads out of the sand. It is not guaranteed that the United States will always be the greatest economy in the world or that we will even continue to be prosperous. For many Americans, it will be incredibly difficult to admit that our nation has become a debt addict and an economic punching bag for the rest of the world. But if we are never willing to admit what the problems are, how are we ever going to come up with the solutions? What you are about to read below is going to absolutely shock many of you. But hopefully it will shock you enough to get you to take action. We desperately need to change course as a nation. The following are 24 statistics about the United States economy that are almost too embarrassing to admit…. #1 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh. #2 The United States once had the highest proportion of young adults with post-secondary degrees in the world. Today, the U.S. has fallen to 12th. #3 In the 2009 « prosperity index » published by the Legatum Institute, the United States was ranked as just the ninth most prosperous country in the world. That was down five places from 2008. #4 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th. #5 The economy of India is projected to become larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2050. #6 One prominent economist now says that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040. #7 According to a new study conducted by Thomson Reuters, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year. #8 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. #9 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. #10 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975. #11 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented only 11.5 percent. #12 The television manufacturing industry began in the United States. So how many televisions are manufactured in the United States today? According to Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder, the grand total is zero. #13 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time that less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941. #14 Back in 1980, the United States imported approximately 37 percent of the oil that we use. Now we import nearly 60 percent of the oil that we use. #15 The U.S. trade deficit is running about 40 or 50 billion dollars a month in 2010. That means that by the end of the year approximately half a trillion dollars (or more) will have left the United States for good. #16 Between 2000 and 2009, America’s trade deficit with China increased nearly 300 percent. #17 Today, the United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that China spends on goods from the United States. #18 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone. #19 American 15-year-olds do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy. #20 Median household income in the U.S. declined from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. That was the second yearly decline in a row. #21 The United States has the third worst poverty rate among the advanced nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. #22 Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power. #23 U.S. government spending as a percentage of GDP is now up to approximately 36 percent. #24 The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080. Please share these statistics with as many family members and friends as you can. It is time to get real. It is time to admit that we have some really big problems. America is in decline and the situation is getting worse by the day. If we are not willing to admit how bad things really are, then we are never even going to have a chance to find the solutions that we need. theeconomiccollapseblog.com

To: i-node who wrote (591563)	10/27/2010 11:07:59 AM
From: bentway	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583798

Stewart recalls two decades of McCain hypocrisy By David Edwards Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 -- 8:51 am Jon Stewart opened his second show in Washington DC this week by ridiculing the city and one of its longest serving politicians. John McCain has been part of the Washington system since 1982. And since at least 1989, he has been claiming that the system he's a part of is broken. Comedy Central's The Daily Show uncovered two decades of clips of McCain claiming it was time to fix Washington. "It's not just The Daily Show correspondents that know something is wrong with the system," announced Stewart. "It's also those who wish to enter the system or hang on to it for dear life." As someone who's been a Washington fixture, McCain was shown in clips through the years saying it was time to fix the system. From 1989 though 2009, McCain seemed to be saying the same thing. "When viewed collectively, not only does one think that McCain needs to hire a new speechwriter, but that he’s been remarkably ineffective in fixing the very system in which he’s thrived. It almost seems as though if he’s not really interested in fixing it at all (or maybe “the fix” is in,)" wrote Mediaite's Colby Hall. This video is from Comedy Central's The Daily Show, broadcast Oct. 26, 2010. rawstory.com

To: i-node who wrote (591563)	10/27/2010 11:25:24 AM
From: bentway	1 Recommendation Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1583798

The High Price of Patriotism Robert Scheer Editor of Truthdig.com, Author, 'The Great American Stickup' Posted: October 27, 2010 03:26 AM It's over for the U.S. in Afghanistan, but that doesn't mean the death and destruction are about to stop. Quagmires don't just go away. However, the signs are everywhere that the American course in that nation is doomed, that those directing this forlorn attempt at occupation of a country that has never tolerated occupation know there is no positive end in sight, and that the locals from President Hamid Karzai to the competing warlords and the Taliban are cutting their own deals on the assumption that our wishes no longer matter. Predictably, the U.S. media dismissed Karzai's denunciation on Monday of the role of American mercenaries in the wanton destruction of his society. "Karzai rails against America in a diatribe," was the way a New York Times headline summarized his press conference, suggesting that his complaints were nothing more than the temper tantrum of an ungrateful child. But Karzai is right. American mercenaries are spreading mayhem across Afghanistan thanks to enormous U.S. spending on the contractors that he has ordered out of the country. "The money starts in the name of the private security companies in the hallways of the U.S. government," Karzai stated in a clear description of the modern working of our military-industrial complex, adding: "The profits are made and arranged there ... then they send the money to kill people here. ... When this money comes to Afghanistan, it causes insecurity in Afghan homes and causes the killing of Afghan children and causes explosions and terrorism in Afghanistan." Our military investments recruit rather than combat terrorists, but that is not a bad outcome if the goal is greater instability as an excuse to keep defense spending absurdly high despite the end of the Cold War two decades ago. Isn't that what it's all about? Our military budget, bigger than that of the rest of the world combined and higher in real dollars that at any time since World War II, is nothing more than a profit and jobs center for the defense industry, which has its tentacles in every congressional district. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were never about combating terrorism, which is a supranational phenomena anchored in neither country. Fighting terrorists who are armed with box cutters does not require sophisticated weaponry, including an enormously costly drone force, but instead effective international police work dependent on sleuths who have mastered local customs and languages. But there's not much money to be made off that sort of gumshoe detective work, and that's why we have two hot wars going even though the al-Qaida enemy has left the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Karzai's equally forceful defense at that press conference of his right to take money from Iran was another grievous blow to the American fantasy of using him to remake Afghanistan over in our image. "They do give us bags of money -- yes, yes, it is done," Karzai admitted, adding the obvious: "We are grateful to the Iranians for this. Patriotism has a price." Patriotism is always in the eye of the beholder, so why is Karzai's patriotism tawdrier than that of the executives of Lockheed and Boeing who still build planes designed to evade Soviet air defenses that were never created? Karzai is now playing the patriot who will line the pockets of his most influential countrymen, and he has turned to another source, suspecting that our funding might come with too many strings attached. He is proving to be a substantial leader, corrupt as he may be, in that he is no longer willing to play the puppet. This sort of rebellion happened before in Vietnam when Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S.-imposed liberator, turned against us and our CIA assassinated him. How long before Karzai meets a similar fate? This fatal syndrome in American imperial designs is well known to Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's key civilian adviser, who played a similar role in Vietnam. Back then, when Holbrooke was involved in the Phoenix assassination program (he now is involved with the drone assassinations), the reckless murder of civilians was aimed at winning their hearts and minds. It didn't work because we destroyed too many of their bodies in the process. The arrogance of these adventures in nation-building represents an enduring example of America's deeply provincial and blindingly self-centered role in the world. That Holbrooke has learned nothing from his trail of deceit posing as diplomacy is not so startling given the obtuse nature of the man, but that Obama has entrusted this most critical aspect of his foreign policy to the likes of a hack like Holbrooke is truly depressing. huffingtonpost.com