by jimmydean » Tue 05 Jul 2005, 20:10:41
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RealityCheckBounced', '"')The U.S. simply has the most efficient system to create prosperity "
your kidding right? I guess you meant to replace "prosperity" with "debt". The US has the lowest savings rate in the world and the largest stockpile of debt in the world. In reality we have nothing and that will come back to bite the average american fool when the credit bubble bursts and they realize they never actually had more than the joneses.
I should have added a clause "as long as the U.S. dollar remains the oil exchange currency"
If you've travelled at all you would most likely to admit to the U.S. being the most prosperous nation in terms of average standard of living for those actually willing to work and better themselves. More socialist leaning countries may have a wider social safety net and free healthcare but they pay for it through the nose in tax. Even on my trip to the UK I was astonished at the sheer tax people pay and the cost of vehicles no doubt padded with huge taxes.
What the U.S. did in the 80's under Reagan and what's going on in Iraq is to install pseudo-democracies (pro-US) that depend on $U.S. dollars investments (and of course ownership) to build infrastructure. Once the infrastructure is in place we extract cheap goods (from the cheap labour) and resources. This conversion process has the added magically effect of discouraging terrorists; hope of self-prosperity discourages acts that may damage future prosperity.
The pseudo-democracy is important. Make it appear like a free/democratic process when in reality it's not. Just look at the 2003 El Salvador elections where a few well placed comments by the U.S. government ensure the pro-US party remained in power
Future maintenance is easy as long as you do the legwork to plug that nation into the global economic engine at the center of which is the U.S.
