US economy

You're a good man Victor, if there were more people like you we'd live in a better world .

 

how about taking on 2013 with the idea of ............... NO FEAR ! ............. I am, have already been through hell and back in 2012 and plan on NO repeat of that ~

 

I'm sorry, but it is this kind of arrogant comment and military muscle flexing that creates such negative attitudes around the world about Americans. Please spare us your flag-waving BS. Americans are indeed generous to a fault. You don't need to rub it in people's faces.

Where have you been living, under a rock? "Yoke of tyranny"??? Really?? ROFLMFAO. Canada became a sovereign nation in 1967 and recognizes the British monarchy as a courtesy. Our "seat of governemnt" is in Ottawa. The monarchy have zero influence on Canadian policies, way of life or economics (which, by the way, this thread is supposed to be about...not American military might). I suspect it is the same in Australia but I won't display my ignorance by professing to be an expert on their situation.

Respectfully,
BD

 

yes it is bro, will argue till I get called off the planet.................. and ya know that is OK ............... dang it guys ........ NO FEAR FOR 2013, make it a promise to yourselves

 

Without the fine people from those countries you call "second" and third "world" countries (I don't even want to know who is who), the US wouldn't exist because their ancestors are your ancestors.... so please be careful not to offend people with such remarks.

 

I suspect the terms second and third world nations have been misused since the demise of the USSR. These were US terms, and shared by our allies outside of the Communist block. The "First World" was America and its capitalistic/democratic based governments (with some exceptions), the "Second World" was the Communist block and its allied nations in the Communist agenda. The "Third World" was in reference to those nations who had not yet joined the industrial growth type nations, and not yet joined one block or the other, capitalist or communist.

There were also the "non-allied" nation states led by Tito's Yugoslavia which were not real members of either first or second world group. Now, we seem to use the "Third World" moniker to denote "poor nations" only, no matter their political leanings. But, echoing "Skipper" let's be careful how we on the forum refer to those nations, and be respectful of their populations.

 

Could you imagine the USA adopting isolationism ? We could pull our resources to completely seal our boarders, rebuild our infrastructure, greatly improve our schools and have money left over ! What would the rest of the world think if we didn't care ?

 

We don't have to gut our military, just cut back. In terms of "bang for your buck" there are other agencies that could be cut much deeper, or completely eliminated. After all, most agencies are just mirroring jobs already done by the states. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

 

I'm out of this silly thread, I shall be watching it closely though, and if it's going to be another "my country is the best one", I"ll close it immediately. The worse is that some of you actually believe what you are saying, it's either sad or scary. Maybe I should buy a return ticket for some of you to visit another fine country in the world. You 'd possibly not want to go home.

 

USA! USA! USA!


Sorry...

Most Americans grew up in a time when the US dominated the worlds economy, or are the children of those who did. It's understandable (if unrealistic) that some think that was due to some special American quality rather than the simple fact that the rest of the civilized world was gutted by war. Those days are gone and they'll never be back. We'll always be a big player, perhaps the biggest, but we need to get used to the fact that our role is shrinking.

Of course, we'll always have Elvis!

[video=youtube;DcJac6OykfM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcJac6OykfM[/video]

 

First off I would like to thank both Victor Gomez and Big Daddy for there polite, honest and respectful replies.. I believe we should try and emulate them right here and hope to be half as good as they replied.

Slipdigit, No I do not work for the DoD or USN but to my knowledge anything on the open 'air wave' can be interecepted and hacked. As to how effictively I can not say but would you rather have some civilian asking about it pissing you off till you looked into it or risk the whole system crashing down because you thought it wasn't possible. Some times takes an A hole civvy to point out possible threats or problems.

Slipdigit, I still hold a lot of hope for the US but when people start using the US constitution as an excuse it starts to become a bit of a lame joke. Does it say anywhere in the constitution you need 40,000 troops in Germany, Or that you need to give financial aid to poorer nations? No, Then why do you do it?... As for the 10th amendment, Not a problem with it however if you cant work togethor to increase education for Middle and Lower income families with both state and federal support then what hope is there in the US of accomplishing anything any more?

Ill admit and make an apology, Funding is not the issue.. But if funding is not then what is? Perhaps your curriculum Maybe you need to look at other nation's advancements and try and apply them at home rather then sticking with all American idea's. One country to look at Id suggest is Finland, Its where Australia is looking right now.

Except that latest statistics for 2012 show a jump of just over 22% for violent crimes, Your highest amount of violent crimes since 1993. As for looking at the stat's on Australian crime between the year's from what I can see there has been a decrease, So your point was? Though to be honest 2012 was not a good year for us.

Well from what I have read US infrastructure (roads, railways etc) requires any where from 1-2.2 Trillion just to bring it up to good condition. And according to the US DoT (Department of Transportation) 25% of your nearly 600,000 bridges need major repairs, and/or suffer from stress due to increased traffic loads (more then they were built for).

Yes because the whole world is Evil and the US is the shining beacon of honesty, fairness and peace... Perhap's your money goes straight to Dictator's (Not that there are many left) but then that is a failure on the US part. Maybe move where the money goes and straight to the people, Building schools, Clinics, roads, wells, water treatment facilities etc etc

Depends how far you would go with the isolationism, Full on ignoring everyone and not having diplomatic relations? You would do more harm then good as that would strain trade relations to a stand still, Internally you might be set for a time but you would lose a lot of political clout and hand it all right over to the Chinese. But if your talking just US forces while maintaining diplomatic relations of aid then I think the world view (especially amongst those less fortunate - financially) would improve.

Im all for just cutting back and not gutting, Just need's to ensure that it is taken back to a sustainable level (20% of federal spending is not sustainable). I also agree getting rid of those useless departments, Hell that problem is something shared by Every nation on earth =).

 

Well I agree it was a pretty stupid statement, but really 1967? that was our centennial.

And since I believe that the American people are the best neighbours in the whole world, my wife and I have just spent the last 4 days in the US helping the economy, shopping, eating, drinking and gambling. The economy should be on the road to recovery now.

KTK

 

My next door neighbor and the great country of Canada are the 2 best neighbors a guy could have !

 

Oh my god!! 1967!! Yes, that was a typo. I meant 1867 of course. ROFL at myself.

BD

 

I dont think an all out cyber attack is enough to bring down our economy. There are lots of brilliant network and software engineers that know what they're doing, and would put up a furious set of countermeasures to mitigate the attack.

An EMP pulse would really play havoc with everyone. That's the ace in hole. But that type of attack would involve a nuclear counter strike. So the probability is that it wont happen.

The problem with our military right now is everything is so damn expensive. The USAF and USN aircraft costs are completely out of control and are unsustainable. New designs should be incrementally better and low production rates. That way we can keep getting newer blood into the services and not commit to 30 year designs that are obsolete after 15. And did I mention UAV's? Why spend so much on attack jets when a low cost UAV can do more for a fraction of the cost.

Ditto with the carrier and amphib operations. Our allies must start paying for the ops and maneuvers as we sure cant maintain the tempo's needed to be at an optimum efficiency.

For the army, time to downsize. But at the same time, invest in, and bring to fruition more lethal and effective technologies that multiply the firepower of our forces. We dont need to starve them like during the 30's. But we sure need to get more bang for the buck using fewer troops.

For the USMC? Time for a revisit for just exactly what and why they exist. Like why do they have to have their own air force when our country is bankrupt. Ditto with the amphib stuff.

The cold war ended 20 years ago. And it is time to rethink our national strategies and priorities. I myself are more impressed with a new auto factory producing commercial products than an aircraft carrier. That generates wealth. Port visits might help a local economy. But all that is doing is reshuffling the taxes that are paid for the ships to be made and sailors to spend. Nothing of value is created.

Just my two cents.

 

Any country without a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.