Why It’s Worse Than You Think

There is a lot of arguing and finger pointing Dem vs. Rep on this board. Bottom line is we are in for some very rough times. Over the last 40 years we have systematically built a house of cards and it is now facing hurricane winds. We have eroded to almost nothing our manufacturing base, the detriment of that alone would have crippled us long ago were it not for the rise in personal spending which converted us to a mostly consumer economy. Think about this, it use to be considered shameful to have debt, but with the rise of the credit card industry it has largely become the norm. So it was almost easy to ignore the stagnating wages that has happened through the largest sector of our population, our poor and middle class. Now, loaded with personal debt, crushed by rising prices, we are faced with a national deficit that is staggering, war that is escalating in the Middle East, and the devaluation of our currency. It doesn't have to be the end of America. But it won't matter which party is in office. It will take a lot of pain and a lot of fortitude on the part of the American people to pull us out of this crisis. It will take admitting that our policies on trade and industry have led us to this past and a determination to fix them. It will take taxes and tariffs on foreign goods to encourage growth in jobs here on American soil. It will take rethinking one of the stupidest immigration policies imaginable. As one poster said, the propaganda that protectionism is a dirty word was many of the great lies bought and sold in this country. Our government's job 1 is to PROTECT this country, and one of the most important ways to do this is to protect the financial well-being of ALL its citizens. All I can say, is the cure is gonna hurt, and its going to hurt for a long time.

" If the army is exposed to a prolonged campaign, the nation's resources will not suffice. No nation has ever benefited from protracted warfare."
(50 permanent US military bases in Iraq to protect the flow of oil )
"Those skilled in doing battle do not raise troops twice... " (stay the course, stay the course, stay the course, surge)
"A nation can be impoverished by the army .... Those in proximity to the army will sell goods at high prices." (Halliburton, Blackwater, and cronies)
"When goods are expensive, the citizens' wealth will be exhausted. When their wealth is exhausted, the peasantry will be afflicted with increased taxes." (or the tax called inflation, if there's no longer gold currency)
Quotes from the www.sonshi.com translation of Sun Tzu's "Art of War" ca. 500 B.C. Parenthetical comments are mine.
Too bad Bush doesn't grasp "those who fail to learn the lessons of history ..." any better than "fool me once..."

Hung Lo: I thought you guys said that the left-wingers don't pray. Get your incorrect generalizations straight.

All the left-wingers keep on praying for economic recession so they can blame it on Bush. Lets face it, everything was fine until that piece of sh*t democrat congress came along and screwed everything up with their uncontrollable spending and economic policies. Notice how the country's economic troubles only came about over the last 2 years. Marxism at its best, what else can I say.

All the left-wingers keep on praying for economic recession so they can blame it on Bush. Lets face it, everything was fine until that piece of sh*t democrat congress came along and screwed everything up with their uncontrollable spending and economic policies. Notice how the country's economic troubles only came about over the last 2 years. Marxism at its best, what else can I say.

How long before we have to strap on our six-guns ( nine mils), to protect our lives and our goods from those that will be losing it all??

Brian1954....what world do you live in? we had to invade Iraq to "bring some stability to the middle east? what stability? the run up in oil prices since we invaded was largely driven by anxiety and uncertainty resulting from GHB's idiotic decision to invade. Also, it was Jimmy Carter who first promoted turning coal, tar sands, oil shale, etc into fuel (remember synfuels). And Ronald Reagan who ridiculed it during the campaign. this article we're commenting on makes the point that the US economy no longer dominates the oil market. Your reference to Reagan's announcement does not hold....I suppose your solution would involve drilling in ANWAR and off the Florida coast, and bomb,bomb,bombing Iran.

Yes, I hate the word quick fix, only lead to pot - holes which eventually will sink the economy, no thanks.

I have read all of these comments. I am wondering if anyone has the answers to these questions.
How much of the billions spent on the Iraq war goes to the wonderful people in our military?
How much goes to U.S. companies that support the military, companies that hire people ?
Why do the Dems promote class warefare by making the "bad" people that make the most money pay more taxes?
Why do so many people look to the gov't to make their lives better? Even JFK had it right by saying "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country"
Why don't you write an uplifting article vs. a pessemistic one. Maybe something to empower everyone to pull themselves up and not vent at politicians.

Busy is an idiot and an imbecile. How anyone can still defend this man is insane. This moron has used the military incorrectly just so he could try and control more oil. He has devastated the economy because all he cares about is his rich brethren. If he would crack down on what the huge corporations are doing then a huge portion of the economic problems we are facing could be avoided. The miltary is on the verge of self inmploding because we are overusing the current troops and not replenishing our numbers. Who would want to enlist with this man as their commander in cheif? I served as a SGT for 6 years in the Army and did my duty. I live in the middle class. I see my military brethren and middle class brethren hurtying because this jerk wanted more oil and it makes me sick.

Worse than we think ... maybe ... it's certainly not worse than some of us think, because I for one think it's going to continue getting worse for some time to come. The wealth and power have gone where the manufacturing went. The economic power of the petroleum exporting countries will be short lived as they blow it all on fancy baubles for the few in ruling power. But the enduring transfer of wealth and power to China, India and even to our Central and South American neighbors who have been soaking up the manufacturing like thirsty sponges will endure long after the U.S. is a sad footnote in the history books. We gave it all away. And now it's too late to get it back, at least within the lifetimes of most who are reading this. Prices are increasing globally and few of those commodities are produced here anymore. So our declining wealth will continue to flow out as prices rise on the imports we are now dependent on. It's not just oil. Go down to Sears and tell them you want a car battery that was made in the U. S. There aren't any. It's a long list. And the international inflation is going to suck us dry, thanks to idiotic trade agreements and failure to protect American jobs and American industries by short-sighted politicians who still pretend that protectionism is a dirty word. The results of that foolish and blindered thinking will drag us down into the longest lasting economic depression since the sinking of the Spanish armada. We do all remember when Spain was a world power, right ? The failure to protect the American standard of living has brought us to the brink of financial disaster. And all the Fed's feeble efforts to pull us back from the edge of that cliff will prove to be a drop of water in the ocean.

US is in deep trouble in the long run.
The economy is already running on fumes because of the huge debt and trade deficit.
How long will we find lenders to keep us on life support for the promise of a spectacular US rebound?
I see the same technology used overseas as we use in US, so why would someone invest in US rather than Asia where the slave labor cost is 10-15 times lower than American labor.
I just can't picture an American being 10-15 times more productive than a slave using the same technology?
The only way to rich parity is basically to decrease wages in US.
If you thought education is our cutting edge, think again: the education is almost free overseas and we import plenty of talent by entancig it with a higher pay. Once that's gone, there would be no more competitive for the US economy and that would be the end.

Right On, Brian...glad someone out there gets it!