Is the USA becoming a third world nation?

[CriticalThought]

Some indications that it may be:

Rising unemployment.
Unmanageable debt.
A shrinking middle class.
Declining manufacturing capacity.
Declining standard of living.
Lack of adequate medical care.
Increasing homelessness
Widespread drug abuse
An inadequate educational system for the 21st. century
Declining infrastructure

What do you think? Are we witnessing the decline and fall of a once great nation, or am I just being an alarmist?

You forgot...

Declining civil rights
Increased political corruption
Devalued currency
Militarization of the police
Increasing massive prison population

 

[CriticalThought]

Nah, we may be entering the stage of populist kleptocracy.

We could only hope. I'm getting tired of being a corporate kleptocracy. Maybe the people can steal back some of their own money.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

We could only hope. I'm getting tired of being a corporate kleptocracy. Maybe the people can steal back some of their own money.

That won't really happen.
Tends to be a farce.

Argentina is a good example.
They devalue their currency enough to cover the entitlement expenses and the tricks on the public at large.

The rest tends to go to cronies of the Kirchner administration.

People are very easy to fool en mass.

 

[CriticalThought]

That won't really happen.
Tends to be a farce.

Argentina is a good example.
They devalue their currency enough to cover the entitlement expenses and the tricks on the public at large.

The rest tends to go to cronies of the Kirchner administration.

People are very easy to fool en mass.

I give up. Maybe life is like poker. Maybe if you have the smarts to do it then you have an obligation to relieve fools of their money. Right now we have a silly populist movement that is financed by billionaires and ultimately exists to serve the interest of billionaires in the name of an abstract 'conservative' ideology and people buy into it completely willing to further the income gap and outsource our future to China. It's brilliant. Maybe I'm on the wrong side. Maybe I should be trying to profit the same way by exploiting people who lack basic economic knowledge. Instead of being one of those people who calls for fair rules, maybe I should be one of the people setting the rules up in my favor and then getting uneducated people to defend the resources I accumulate in their own misguided view that I "earned" them.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

I give up. Maybe life is like poker. Maybe if you have the smarts to do it then you have an obligation to relieve fools of their money. Right now we have a silly populist movement that is financed by billionaires and ultimately exists to serve the interest of billionaires in the name of an abstract 'conservative' ideology and people buy into it completely willing to further the income gap and outsource our future to China. It's brilliant. Maybe I'm on the wrong side. Maybe I should be trying to profit the same way by exploiting people who lack basic economic knowledge. Instead of being one of those people who calls for fair rules, maybe I should be one of the people setting the rules up in my favor and then getting uneducated people to defend the resources I accumulate in their own misguided view that I "earned" them.

The best way to ensure little political corruption, is to keep the politicians out of most everything.
We tend to want them to regulate this, fix that, criminalize so and so, but in the end, it extends their power.

All it takes is the wrong people to fill the place of what should be managed by a saint.
There aren't many saints in this world.

Just an example of how moronic democracy can get.
India and Argentina have politicians promising free tv's and appliances to the people.
Just so happens that it's during an election.

 

[CriticalThought]

The best way to ensure little political corruption, is to keep the politicians out of most everything.
We tend to want them to regulate this, fix that, criminalize so and so, but in the end, it extends their power.

All it takes is the wrong people to fill the place of what should be managed by a saint.
There aren't many saints in this world.

Just an example of how moronic democracy can get.
India and Argentina have politicians promising free tv's and appliances to the people.
Just so happens that it's during an election.

I'm not even talking about the politicians. The politicians are doing what politicians do, they are making political careers for themselves and trying to get elected or reelected. I'm talking about many of the wealthiest Americans manipulating our political system, setting the market rules up in their favor, and financing a grass roots movement of the most uneducated in our populace to fight for their interests under the guise of an abstract 'conservative' ideology.

 

[makkam]

The best way to ensure little political corruption, is to keep the politicians out of most everything.
We tend to want them to regulate this, fix that, criminalize so and so, but in the end, it extends their power.

All it takes is the wrong people to fill the place of what should be managed by a saint.
There aren't many saints in this world.

Just an example of how moronic democracy can get.
India and Argentina have politicians promising free tv's and appliances to the people.
Just so happens that it's during an election.

Keep the politicians out of everything...then what will they do

It's not just political corruption, it's economic corruption. In fact, these two go hand in hand and I don't think a person can think of any system that won't eventually fall to corruption in the long run.

As far as third world, I think people heard that term from the news over-sensationalizing things again. While some people in the US may live at the poverty level, most of us on our worst days are way above third world living. But I guess it was effective since it has people worried.

And you don't have to go to Argentina and India to see how dumb democracy can get. We've got it localized

 

[American]

Some indications that it may be:

Rising unemployment.
Unmanageable debt.
A shrinking middle class.
Declining manufacturing capacity.
Declining standard of living.
Lack of adequate medical care.
Increasing homelessness
Widespread drug abuse
An inadequate educational system for the 21st. century
Declining infrastructure

What do you think? Are we witnessing the decline and fall of a once great nation, or am I just being an alarmist?

Hyperbole much?

 

[Dittohead not!]

That's true, but we wouldn't have those systems in place if it were up to a lot of the people on this board. Things like social security and welfare are under constant assault these days. What happens when and if they go away?

Is that what differentiates us from the poor countries of the world, social safety nets? There are a lot of people saying that we could solve the problems I've mentioned by getting away from government social safety nets and allowing a free market economy to operate.

Is that true?

 

[shintao]

Is that what differentiates us from the poor countries of the world, social safety nets? There are a lot of people saying that we could solve the problems I've mentioned by getting away from government social safety nets and allowing a free market economy to operate.

Is that true?

No. The free market Company Store will not solve the problems.

 

[SheWolf]

America is a insertyourfavourtite-ocracy!

zombieocracy

 

[atrasicarius]

Is that what differentiates us from the poor countries of the world, social safety nets? There are a lot of people saying that we could solve the problems I've mentioned by getting away from government social safety nets and allowing a free market economy to operate.

Is that true?

Well, that's not the key thing. The key thing is just that we're developed and they're not. Getting rid of the social safety nets sure wouldn't help, though.

 

[imagep]

By what measure, exactly? Most stats show us slipping in education, health care, life expectancy, crime rates, and pretty much everything else.

I haven't seen any stats showing us slipping in education or crime rates. What I have seen is an improvement. I don't know about life expectance or health care. got any links?

 

[imagep]

You forgot...

Declining civil rights
Increased political corruption
Devalued currency
Militarization of the police
Increasing massive prison population

We've always had those things.

 

[Misterveritis]

Some indications that it may be:
. . .
What do you think? Are we witnessing the decline and fall of a once great nation, or am I just being an alarmist?

My opinion is that president Bush (43) set the stage for the one term president Obama's willful and intentional destruction of the US. In order to transform us (into his socialist utopia) he must first break the nation.

If conservatives don't win the Executive branch, win the Senate and increase our numbers in the House I believe we are finished as a good and great nation.

 

[links136]

do you have any facts to support your statement or are you just going by your gut feeling?

 

[Dittohead not!]

Well, that's not the key thing. The key thing is just that we're developed and they're not. Getting rid of the social safety nets sure wouldn't help, though.

How is it, then, that Canada, with its more liberal social network, is recovering from the recession more quickly than the US?

 

[links136]

How is it, then, that Canada, with its more liberal social network, is recovering from the recession more quickly than the US?

well Canada's only recession was with the arm the US pulled it down with, in fact in Canada some people don't believe there ever was a recession because not a damn thing changed around them. (I should mention they're christian)

 

[atrasicarius]

How is it, then, that Canada, with its more liberal social network, is recovering from the recession more quickly than the US?

How does that differ from what I said? Canada is also a developed nation.

 

[Dittohead not!]

How does that differ from what I said? Canada is also a developed nation.

Yes, it is. This part of your post, however:

Getting rid of the social safety nets sure wouldn't help, though.

would lead us to believe that social safety nets are worsening the recession. Canada has better safety nets, has a universal medical care system, yet is recovering much more quickly from the recession. According to Link's post above, it seems a lot of Canadians didn't even notice it. Here in the USA, it was (and still is) quite a big deal, however.

 

[atrasicarius]

Yes, it is. This part of your post, however:



would lead us to believe that social safety nets are worsening the recession. Canada has better safety nets, has a universal medical care system, yet is recovering much more quickly from the recession. According to Link's post above, it seems a lot of Canadians didn't even notice it. Here in the USA, it was (and still is) quite a big deal, however.

No, I meant, "Getting rid of social safety nets wouldn't make things better." Come on man, look at my sig.

 

[Dittohead not!]

No, I meant, "Getting rid of social safety nets wouldn't make things better." Come on man, look at my sig.

Oh, my bad. I misread your post.

 

[LizardofOz]

You know, I thought about this and a lot of people like to jump to this wild conclusion but the fact of the matter is no matter how bad off even most Americans would be, every single one of you are still better off than nearly 80% of the world's population. In India for example there is a river that is pitch black and bubbling. You want to know why? Because everyone ****s in the river and the **** obviously makes it black, and the methane gas bubbles out. So no, why would someone even post this thread?

 

[Jeezy]

People who legitimately believe America is going to become a third world country have zero idea what the term "third world" actually means (which is nothing), or what the origin of the term is. "Third World" represents the countries who were not aligned with either side during the cold war -- the Atlantic democracies (first world) or the Soviet bloc (second world). There is, quite literally, no common characteristic to be found among 3rd world countries, except that all of them receive US aid.

That being said, even if you assume the worst of the "third world" definition, the US is definitely not going to become one.

 

[LizardofOz]

People who legitimately believe America is going to become a third world country have zero idea what the term "third world" actually means (which is nothing), or what the origin of the term is. "Third World" represents the countries who were not aligned with either side during the cold war -- the Atlantic democracies (first world) or the Soviet bloc (second world). There is, quite literally, no common characteristic to be found among 3rd world countries, except that all of them receive US aid.

That being said, even if you assume the worst of the "third world" definition, the US is definitely not going to become one.

Right and like anything though in the world of social issues, economics, etc there can be different meanings. Neo conservative and liberalism for example have changed a bit in meaning over the past few years as an example. What it means to be democrat or republican has also changed. I think in general when people talk about third world countries they talk about under developed poor countries where much of the people don't have simple utility and necessities that we all now take for granted.