The Decline of a Super Power – Chinese Takeout and Takeover!
Some random thoughts about the following article:
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MACLEANS Magazine Sept. 2010
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/14/third-world-america/2/
Collapsing bridges, street lights turned off, cuts to basic services:
the decline of a superpower.
These cuts in infrastructure and education are more than just a temporary belt-tightening in response to a recession. They threaten long-term damage to American’s economic foundation—a foundation that has long been eroding.
IKEA treats America like a Third World Country:
http://www.e-forwards.com/2011/04/ikea-believes-america-is-a-third-world-nation/
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Just wondering if the people in the Gated Communities are worried about America becoming a Third World nation.
Or do they just build taller walls? I remember 40 years ago a teacher told us that many Americans don’t really care about what is happening outside their immediate neighbourhood and family – As long as there is Friday Night Football. I believe the book he quoted from was, Sports the Opiate of the People (or Masses, but I can’t find it anywhere.
I wonder when the average person becomes really upset about the growing division of the rich and the poor. Isn’t this a major cause for the downfall of many great Empires or the Reason for Revolts? Update: October 2011 ~
The “Occupy Wall Street” protests are scheduled to go on Friday as the grassroots movement continues to grow, spread to other cities and grab the attention of the president.
President Barack Obama said Thursday that the demonstrators are giving a voice to those frustrated with the financial system as protests popped up in more than a dozen American cities.
The percentage of Americans who owned their homes has seen its biggest decline since the Great Depression, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sports: The Opiate of the Masses
By Kyle | March 27, 2009
Marx was wrong: The opiate of the masses isn’t religion, but spectator sports. What else explains the astounding fact that millions of seemingly intelligent human beings feel that the athletic exertions of total strangers are somehow consequential for themselves? The real question we should be asking during the madness … is not who will win, but why anyone cares.
Arianna Huffington sees an even starker big picture emerging from the reams of bad economic news. “As we watch the middle class crumbling, for me this is a major indication that we are turning into a Third World country,” said Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, in an interview. “The distinguishing characteristic of the Third World country is you have the people at the top and the rest—you don’t have a thriving middle class,” says Huffington, whose new book is entitled Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream.
By Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder
Gated communities provoke impassioned reactions from supporters and critics alike. In their book, Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States
What is the measure of nationhood when the divisions between neighborhoods require security patrols and fencing to keep out other citizens? When public services and even local government are privatized, when the community of responsibility stops at the gates, the function and the very idea of democracy is threatened. Gates and barricades that separate people from one another also reduce people’s potential to understand one another and commit to any common or collective purpose. In short, gates reduce the opportunity for social contact, and without social contact, this nation becomes less likely to fulfill its social contract.
When I saw this picture of Giant Ships used by WALMART to bring products to the US from China, I was amazed. However, when I learned that it returns across the ocean empty, I was shocked. Perhaps the best indication of what the future will be. Third World Nation???
For more photos and info, click the following:
http://www.e-forwards.com/2010/07/one-big-reason-why-economy-is-weak-in-2010-and-getting-weaker/
