tomahawk6 said:
The US economy is the best in the world.
That's an unsupportable allegation, and rather misleading considering that nearly 11% of it is based in government supported industry (defence) and all of that money is borrowed.
Lowest unemployment. Best growth of any western democracy.
40 million Americans work full time but still live under the poverty line. Highest murder rate and illiteracy rate of any western democracy too. Economic growth is supported by credit, average rate of US consumer savings in the negatives. Highest consumer indebtedness on earth.
Deficits are nothing new. The US has run them since 1900. Our highest deficit was during WW2 - 30% of the total economy. Our current deficit is about 4.5% of the total economy - probably too large but not fatal.
Not fatal? The majority of the money that the US is borrowing right now is from Asia. Simply by refusing a loan to the US the Chinese could drive interest rates up 1-3%, putting a major cooler on the US economy.
The biggest competitive advantage the US has is that we dont have to fund a national health care program which seem's to be a lodestone around the neck's of the european democracies. In fact as these countries struggle to pay the ever rising costs they have steadily reduced the size of their armed forces.
Seeing as this is the desire of their electorate, so be it. Where do you get the idea that these nations should somehow be disregarding the will of their populations? I thought the US supported freedom based democracies? Also, seeing as the US is willing to invest so heavily in its armed forces, and intervene in other nations' messes so quickly, often in order to protect valuable sources of raw materials, as well as local markets, why should they?
If this trend continues the US will be the only NATO nation capable of sustained military action. To offset this trend I think the US needs a nation such as India to partner with in the future. The US can supply naval and air power while India would supply much of the manpower. There are many in the world who would like to see the US economy fail, but if that happens the entire world will be in depression.
You are referring to the capability to project massive power to another continent, which the US has always has a monopoly on. Most nations are capable of significant force projection in and around their own borders and coasts, because the
raison d'etre of their militaries is security and defence. Only the US considers the requirement to be able to sustain large wars on two continents/oceans to be an indispensible facet of foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. Welcome to 2002, India is already a nuclear power, and has a regionally significant Air Force and Navy as well.
You are right about the US economy however, China will be an excellent source for investment by the time it does collapse though.