Does America still have the Balls it used to?
We have been floating in rough seas for a while, the ship is sinking and the band-aid so called stimulus has lost it's stickiness and it's coming off, I certainly will like to see some land and get to it before the ship sinks.
"Who is the captain of the ship"? I asked my boss yesterday puzzled to see the Dow dip almost 200 pts at 11 am, To which he replied "the man that never ran a business or had a real job his whole life my man".
This makes me come to one conclusion...
Our country is being run by an administration that probably couldn't run a lemonade stand!
Now im not the greatest writer but I can get my point across.
Edmundo posted a great series not too long ago called "Sell your options Dearly” which in turn it inspired me to write this 2 post series.
Our country is not leading by example anymore in this wonderful world. We have Asian and middle eastern countries holding our debt and yanking our chain like little puppy dogs in turn we don’t have the balls to impose tougher trade rules (as in import and export to all you chimpos out there) we are getting cheap made shitty quality Chinese shit that costs almost as much as american stuff but the economy is so beat up that we wont spend the extra dollar to buy something made in the U.S.A, we have been buying oil from sheiks and princes that fund terrorism, American companies are subsidizing more and more work over seas and while that is great for tax porpuses and profit we are degrading and downgrading ourselves.
There was a time when great doctors from around the world dreamed of coming to America obviously thanks to universal healthcare that dream is no longer there we are approaching darker days in the economy and as much as I would love to be bullish on America unfortunately at this point in time I am bearish until this administration does some real good.
Let’s get to the point.
America reminds me of the person that takes one credit card to pay off another one and keeps rolling over their debt until one day Visa doesn’t show up to the party anymore. Can the idiots running this country wake up and stop spending money? Can we call the government and tell them to wake up?
I am deathly afraid of what will happen if China or Japan do not show up the day we have to roll over our short term debt. You see America is not seen as the Super Power it used to be seen as, yeah we pack some punch in military power but as far as trade we went down the drain. We all remember the roaring 20’s, in the 30’s we were the biggest exporters of oil (till we ran out), Hollywood in the 40’s, the war in the 50’s, heck we were the biggest exporter or electronics in the 70s and then WTF happened?
We strayed too far from the ideals that made this country great and we are starting to pay the price. We are failing our own country.
Independence day is around the corner and I am sure the founding fathers are turning in their grave as they see that their very creation is turning into what they despised the most.
Seriously with all due respect what would George Washington do if he saw what this president is doing to our country? im sure he would pimp smack him that said...
How do we fix it?
On that, yeah tommorrow...
barboon wrote: we don’t have
we don’t have the balls to impose tougher trade rules (as in import and export to all you chimpos out there) we are getting cheap made shitty quality Chinese shit that costs almost as much as american stuff but the economy is so beat up that we wont spend the extra dollar to buy something made in the U.S.A... American companies are subsidizing more and more work over seas and while that is great for tax porpuses and profit we are degrading and downgrading ourselves.
Are you really attacking free-market capitalism on a finance forum?
"If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars." - J. Paul Getty
Not an Obama fan, but all you
Not an Obama fan, but all you wrote in your post is Obamas fault because...........
Obviously you kids don't get
Obviously you kids don't get the big picture.
"Climbing a mountain that's only getting steeper"
-Barboon
So enlighten us please chief.
So enlighten us please chief. What would you have done if you were in the place of Obama? How would you solve the debt problem? How do you cure the China syndrome? What would you do to ensure that American industries thrive again and regain competitive footing from China?
relatively america is not
relatively america is not doing too bad. europe is in shambles, china's economy is slowing down, and india has a long way to go. relax and go grab yourself a drink or something
Man - your rant was very
Man - your rant was very passionate, but there are some fundamental economics and politics at work here:
1) As the economy of any country develops, it goes through an agricultural focus, followed by an industrial/manufacturing focus, followed by a services focus. The US went through each phase and now we're at a stage where our economy does not manufacture much any more and is focused on providing services to the rest of the world. We went through our cheap manufacturing days, everyone got richer, standards of life went up, and wages went higher. The capitalistic response is to shift production to where it is cheapest. If we had not moved all our manufacturing overseas, and shifted our economic focus to highly lucrative services, we would be much poorer today. If you're going to be capitalist, be a complete capitalist. Don't hide inconsistent theories behind propagandistic language. And don't get nationalistic. That reduces you to those monkeys yelling "Jihad! Death to America!" half a world away. Seriously. It's the equivalent.
2) Politically, we have never really "led by example". We started courting shady dictators and arming despots (the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, Bao Dai, Qaddafi, Franco (who was fascist, btdubs) - the list goes on) way early in the 20th century and have seen those weapons used against us. Terrorist attacks globally after 9/11 have numbered more than the previous 20 years - this despite our hundreds of billions of TAXPAYER dollars funding our "war on terror". The reason we have "Asian and middle eastern countries holding our debt and yanking our chain like little puppy dogs" is because WE CHOSE TO COURT THEM POLITICALLY - because somewhere in our chequered political history, we decided that our national interests would be best served by arming and funding certain countries and regimes, and denouncing others. Read a newspaper. Or a history book, if you haven't been reading the news for a while.
You talk about this phenomenon of the US government "spending money" like it's a new thing. This is what has fueled our economy for the last century. We spend. Republican or Democrat, we spend. With cheap debt and a system promoted by the low-interest regime of Alan Greenspan, we borrowed more so we could spend more. THAT'S the error we made. Admit your parents' mistakes, and don't repeat them. Please don't pick a convenient scapegoat and say "it's the government!" or "it's Obama!". That's the defense of the weak-minded who can't bear the uncomfortable truth that it is their own consumption and voting patterns that led to this mess. Quit blaming everything on the government and learn to evolve with the times. A new government will not change things, but a new form of citizenship will.
The world we live in is changing. The concept of a "superpower" does not exist any more. People who cling to this idea are failing to embrace technology and advancement, and this will lead to our downfall. We're living on past glory and it is high time we moved forward. It's like hoping that putting ANOTHER man on the moon will bring back America's status as a global force to be reckoned with. Or like hoping that finding Osama Bin Laden will magically stop the Al-Qaeda. Guess what? The Al-Qaeda is no longer a group of people. It's an idea. And you can't kill ideas with weapons. Fanatical clinging to outdated views only helps exacerbate our declining standing on the world stage. It's about time we own up to our mistakes, quit the blame-game, embrace technological, political, and social advancement and set about finding America's new value proposition to the world.
We, as proud Americans, need to embrace the change in the world, and accept that we may not be the global power we used to be any more, but we can improve, adapt, and succeed. We still have one of the best (if not THE best) higher educational system in the world, and we still have the best possible environment for entrepreneurship. We have a country that is a strong meritocracy, and we have enough wealth to allow us to focus on building a sustainable economy, without having to worry about where our next meal is coming from. We need to start thinking of the rest of the world as business partners instead of savages who "aspire" to be like us. That's so 19th century.
IMHO, the only way to repair our country, make our economy sustainable, and restore (something like) our former glory is:
1) to educate ourselves; to understand that we have a larger, more responsible role to play in the world. The more you learn about other cultures, the more you learn about yourself, the more change you can catalyze. Do something bigger than counting the zeroes in your bank account.
2) to embrace technology, globalization, advanced perspectives, new ideas, and innovation. This implies shedding of old-world views and challenging yourself to go beyond what "Gran'paw told ya 'bout 'em Injuns" when you sat on his knee.
Ultimately, it's about winning people over with your culture by understanding theirs. This is the only consistently successful method for gaining political power and respect. i.e. Don't make other people hate you, make them like you! Duh! (It's like winning a "Cultural Victory", for all you Civ fans. Man, I loved doing that.)
Let's take our heads out of the sand and assess ourselves for what we really are. Maybe that will instill some humility and lead to a new world order...because God knows, the previous one didn't work out too well.
Damn. That was long.
Damn. That was long.
We need smarter kids We need
We need smarter kids
We need to be industry leaders in a new field ---->> Green technology
We need to grow a sack as a nation. PERIOD. If this nation with its current people were transported back to WW2 I would put all of my money on Germany because we have become a country of little girls.
This country needs some HGH and a double shot of testosterone. When we have the President of Mexico coming here and lecturing us about shit you know we have become bitches.
We need TIGHT fiscal control. I am talking about laying off loser govt employees, raising the SS retirement age, cutting a lot of spending, TOUGH measures. China can talk down to us because we NEED them. Lets get our house under control and then we will have power.
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AnthonyD1982 wrote: We need
We need smarter kids
We need to be industry leaders in a new field ---->> Green technology
We need to grow a sack as a nation. PERIOD. If this nation with its current people were transported back to WW2 I would put all of my money on Germany because we have become a country of little girls.
This country needs some HGH and a double shot of testosterone. When we have the President of Mexico coming here and lecturing us about shit you know we have become bitches.
We need TIGHT fiscal control. I am talking about laying off loser govt employees, raising the SS retirement age, cutting a lot of spending, TOUGH measures. China can talk down to us because we NEED them. Lets get our house under control and then we will have power.
Damn straight. We need to quit bitching, man up, and provide some value to world again. Completely agree with your statement about being industry leaders in a new field. All these people who keep complaining about bringing manufacturing and IT service jobs back to the US get on my nerves so much. It's ridiculous! We sent those jobs elsewhere so we could focus on bigger ticket items like INNOVATION! We have moved up the worldwide "management" chain. It's time to stop complaining that we're no longer doing grunt work.
One point I want to bring up
One point I want to bring up is that America needs to revamp it's educational system if it wants to stay competitive. A strong math and science background can help drive research, development and tomorrow's products.
The level of mathematics and science literacy in this country pales in comparison to other developing nations such as India and China. I distinctly remember in graduate school taking an "Advanced Engineering Analysis" class--my professor from Turkey said point blank, "if you went to school in America, it's going to be very hard to get an A in this class". Not that he was discriminating against passports but the foreign graduate students had been drilled with math/science since day 1 and even the most complicated material came natural to them. What's worst is that the vast majority of graduate students in the US are foreign AND leave the country as soon as they graduate. It used to be that students would get an education and then try to make it in America; the IIT alums dot the likes of Sun Microsystems, McKinsey or invented LASIK.
I'm sure if all the Asian-American talent in the IT/Programming industries decided to get up and go, America would be desperately playing catch-up.
The brain drain during WW2 that helped America pull top talent to build the bomb. If you compare a Math textbook from the 50s or 60s to the crap they are printing out now, you'll see a stark difference. The old text books were thinner and got straight to the point--none of the fluff you might see in your children's text.
The point of this rant is that we need to fix our education system and get back to innovating.
BluesHill - silver banana to
BluesHill - silver banana to you, great post
We need Obama to concede.
We need Obama to concede.
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"I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcom
@San Fran: You realize that
@San Fran: You realize that Madison and Hamilton were both protectionists. As was Jefferson before he died. Adam Smith's book suggests that there are times when protectionism is necessary. Im not saying we should necessarily protect our industries, but people that believe all protection is bad are dumbasses.
What we really need is to grow our balls back and start educating ourselves. This pussy ass math that is learned these days is bull shit. U should have to take calculus to graduate college, and u should damn well have every other math done to graduate high school. Its not like it is that hard all you have to do is work and not be a pussy.
barboon wrote: we have been
we have been buying oil from sheiks and princes that fund terrorism
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_...
Sure we buy some oil from the Middle East (I think its outrageous to assume that the money goes into terrorist funds... its more realistically goes into sovereign wealth funds or to the governments of those country) but not nearly as much as we do from Canada, Mexico. Of the top 5, only Saudi Arabia is in the ME, and they are a US ally so I don't know what you are trying to claim here.
I do agree with your analysis though. America has strayed from its ideals. The free, independent spirit that we used to have is being replaced by collectivist thinking. Hopefully we can reverse this before it fucks us.
As for balls, check out the thread from like two days ago on Andrew Jackson. That motherfucker had balls.
looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?
LIBOR wrote: As for balls,
As for balls, check out the thread from like two days ago on Andrew Jackson. That motherfucker had balls.
Yes! Balls of lead inside his chest cavity that went CLANK CLANK when he walked around.
BluesHill, I left America
Note - a lot of this reply is
DaCarez wrote: Note - a lot
"Climbing a mountain that's only getting steeper"
-Barboon
IT IS ALL PART OF THE NEW
What does Obama have to do
I am not cocky, I am confident, and when you tell me I am the best it is a compliment.
-Styles P
It is doubtful Bush will be
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you remind me of this -
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Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.——William Shakespeare
if balls means spending even
You understimated the elites
Some very good points from
Where I unload on Twits and take verbal S***s
Let me just add that the
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About the President..."What
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
I said an almost identical
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Hug It Out
DaCarez wrote: Note - a lot
I am a huge supporter of
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So much rhetoric but such a
Please enlighten us oh wise
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