Is America still #1?

[Coals]

I understand it perfectly. But thats not the situation we are in.

We do not have a giant vault full of gold
We do not have a giant vault full of paper money (even if we did it would be fake and worthless).
Our debt to GDP ratio is now over 96%.
We are broke.

All we have is debt, and tons of it. The reason we are allowed to borrow and borrow is because the entire world economy is based on the US and the US dollar. If they dont SELL us the money the world economy will collapse and fall into total chaos. The collapse of the US dollar is imminent, its been designed to collapse, but they aren't going to let that happen untill they are ready, untill they have somehting to replace it other than something of physical bullion.
Untill then we will buy printed money off the cartels. They dont care, they will print and print and print its just more power for them in the future and it costs them nothing.

How else can I explain this? If I have 0 dollars I am broke. If I have -$12,000,000,000,000 I am not rich. I may have a nice margarita machine, and a social safety net and a bad ass millitary, but I am not rich. The people that I owe that money to are rich.

Usury is somehting we have been led to beleive is required. it is not. Historically it has not. Im not religious, but Usury is a sin for a reason.

Oh and I added a snipit in my last post after you read it, should help a little.

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

I understand it perfectly. But thats not the situation we are in.

We do not have a giant vault full of gold
We do not have a giant vault full of paper money (even if we did it would be fake and worthless).
Our debt to GDP ratio is now over 96%.
We are broke.

All we have is debt, and tons of it. The reason we are allowed to borrow and borrow is because the entire world economy is based on the US and the US dollar. If they dont SELL us the money the world economy will collapse and fall into total chaos. The collapse of the US dollar is imminent, its been designed to collapse, but they aren't going to let that happen untill they are ready, untill they have somehting to replace it other than something of physical bullion.
Untill then we will buy printed money off the cartels. They dont care, they will print and print and print its just more power for them in the future and it costs them nothing.

How else can I explain this? If I have 0 dollars I am broke. If I have -$12,000,000,000,000 I am not rich. I may have a nice margarita machine, and a social safety net and a bad ass millitary, but I am not rich. The people that I owe that money to are rich.

Usury is somehting we have been led to beleive is required. it is not. Historically it has not. Im not religious, but Usury is a sin for a reason.

Oh and I added a snipit in my last post after you read it, should help a little.

You see it as a one way agent, metaphorically speaking. I see it as a double agent. We're in debt to them, they rely on us and without us as you say the world would slip into chaos. Plus most countries are also in debt to US and we have the most valuable physical assets.

 

[WillyBagseed]

Not including 3rd world countries ( and we beat some of them)


USA #1 - Me thinks many forget we are the most in debt nation also.

USA #1 - We have the largest disparity of wealth between the top and the middle class / poor .

USA #1 - as far as being the only first world nation without healthcare for all.

and much much more but gtg

 

[splifchris]

Yeah... The healthcare things seems so weird to us over this side of the pond.... slip and break your leg... or some random drunk mills you down in his car and you dont have insurance and you could end up bankrupt and homeless or at least in debt for the rest of your life.... Dont see that as being very "FREE" !!!! Its just plain weird that a country would treat its citizens that way!!!!

 

[Coals]

Not including 3rd world countries ( and we beat some of them)


USA #1 - Me thinks many forget we are the most in debt nation also.

USA #1 - We have the largest disparity of wealth between the top and the middle class / poor .

USA #1 - as far as being the only first world nation without healthcare for all.

and much much more but gtg

#1 most imprisoned nation. 3% of the worlds population, but 25% of the worlds population behind bars. They call it the land of the free. (free to do exactly as we say or else)

 

[Coals]

and we have the most valuable physical assets.

Thats my point. Those assets aren't ours. They belong to the individuals we owe 12 trillion to. Including our millitary. Which is why the millitary has not been acting in the peoples best interest. They go and create conflict in order to manufacture a false enemy to justify the theft of a nations soverignty and wealth. The people of America dont see any of it. BP, Haliburton, Chevron etc get all the oil and then the price of oil goes up. Our millitary is an arm of a private organisation. The government isout of control.

Look at the EU. The same terrorists that control us are driving the place into the ground over there as well. There big plan to solve the debt crisis? More debt. So at least it looks like Christmas will be ok.

Hey just saw on the ticker Exxon Mobil's profits are up 41%.

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

You have no point.

 

[splifchris]

You have no point.

Im not sure Crypt... I cant see too much wrong with what he's saying...

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

The common thought behind the U.S. debt is an easily observed fallacy. But I'm not defending the U.S. government, I'm just trying to state what it is, the U.S. government is still the most powerful, and people that think otherwise are being treated to the same tactic they used with Area 51.

 

[Harrekin]

Is having a budget deficit of almost $1.5 trillion dollars considered rich these days?!

Your country NEEDS to borrow money to avert a default.

Most powerful,rich and free country? It's looking more like a financial basket case with its people supposedly "free" under the Patriot Act.

Actually shouldn't speak ill of the States or God forbid,they might come with their bombers and "free" my country too.

 

[splifchris]

Your No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
• "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.7.
• Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
• "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
• "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
• Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
• Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.
• The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
• "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.
• Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
• "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.
• Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
• The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
• "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
• "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).
• "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.6.
• The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
• U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).
• Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
• Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
• Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.
• One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
• "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.2.
• "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
• Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
• "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
• "The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

Also number one in the world for

Divorce rate.
Obesity rate.
Incarceration rate.
Hours of Television viewed.
Highest illegal drug use.
Car theft.
Reported Rapes.
Reported Murders.

Congratulations!!!!!

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

LOL That does cast a stark light on ONE of the things on the OP's "#1 of" list. Freedom is found nowhere in this world.

 

[Coals]

, the U.S. government is still the most powerful,

Yes, it does have the largest millitary in the world, a millitary that the people have no control over whatsoever. A millitary that is working for a private group of corporations.