Ivestigating the signs of Americas crumbling Empire and asking: can Ron Paul save us? by Scrappy Koala
(libertarian)
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Let’s say Ron Paul is not your choice then I would ask can any of the great SlutRats (a slutrat is one of your typical Repuba-sluts or Demo-rats) save this crumbling empire on their own? That’s a fine question as well but since Ron Paul is the only person actually talking about a fading empire lets just examine him. I mean if you don’t even know the empire is in trouble then how much of a chance do you have of saving it?
In terms of military might America currently enjoys the status of being the only player, the sole super power with no rival or equal. But the military is stretched to the breaking point according to former secretary of state Colin Powel, "The active army is about broken". Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey puts it this way, "The truth is, the U.S. Army is in serious trouble and any recovery will be years in the making and, as a result, the country is in a position of strategic peril". We may be forced to leave these wars simply because our Army can’t support them anymore.
In Ron Paul’s own words: "we maintain an empire which we can't afford - we have 700 bases overseas, we are in 130 countries". In An Empire of Wealth, John Gordon boasts that America became the "world's most powerful economic system -- succeeding so wildly that today, with 6 percent of the world's land and population, the United States boasts "close to 30 percent of the world's gross domestic product." And it was higher before. In fact America created the greatest economy the world has ever seen and was the number one manufacturer in the world for decades. In 1950 33% of our labor force was in manufacturing.
But America’s star is fading fast, now less than 10% of our labor force is in manufacturing with the losses accelerating seemingly exponentially. In a report from the Guardian Unlimited "The OECD said China's share (exports) was on course to rise to 10% by 2010, by which time it would overtake the US." In fact some are speculating that China may have already surpassed the US because of the crooked accounting systems made to placate an ignorant American population. All goods made by "so called" American companies are counted as American goods whether they are made in America or not. So hypothetically at some point nothing could be made in America but the reports would show us to have rising exports and manufactured goods. Its interesting to note that when comparing the haves from the have nots we used to say a country was industrialized or not. In other words it had industry. Now we say developed, developing, and under developed as if just getting to a state of "developed" means your home free and you no longer have to actually produce anything.
The best way to find out the true state of our manufacturing is to look at jobs:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its report on job growth since 2000. When looking at manufacturing jobs for the last 5 years we have lost in every single field and in some very shockingly. Paul Craig writes "The declines in some manufacturing sectors have more in common with a country undergoing saturation bombing during war than with a super-economy that is "the envy of the world." Communications equipment lost 43% of its workforce. Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37% of its workforce. The workforce in computers and electronic products declined 30%." In the same period the US dollar lost half its value.
Most shocking of all is how the rest of the world perceives the dying empire. Where people meekly accepted Americas will and might they no longer do. Consider these shocking recent events:
Ecuador’s president refused to renew a lease on one of our bases saying the US could have a base in Ecuador if Ecuador could have one in America. Russia just recently stood up to the US and traded Uranium with Iran. China just recently refused a ship port entry under storm conditions and refused a plan leave for an Aircraft carrier. Most shocking of all is the reports from Lou Dobbs that there are skirmishes happening on the border where Mexican citizens are hurling giant rocks, Molotov cocktails and even gunfire at our border agents from the Mexican side of the border. In response our agents have fired pepper spray back over the border. If that wasn’t shocking enough Mexico’s government demanded that we stop. In fact Mexico is demanding a lot these days; demanding amnesty for its citizens, demanding that we give them 1.4 billion in military aid without conditions, demanding that we stop building fences and on and on. In fact the only people demanding anything these days seems to be other countries demanding that the US do or not do something. When the US goes to China to talk about unfair trade activities it goes with its hat in its hand for it dare not talk tough to China. And talk is about all the US will ever get out of China.
The signs that the US is in decline and maybe completely cracking are everywhere. Even as our border agents are being attacked and foreign governments are demanding our agents stand down our own government turns on its own. Right now two border agents are in prison for doing their job. Just last night the new budget was approved in the middle of the night like any good banana republic and they killed all finance for the border fence against the majority will of the people. And let’s talk about the people of a falling empire.
The people of the crumbling empire are largely distracted by the latest crazes and little interested in school anymore. According to USA Today "Fourteen urban school districts have on-time graduation rates lower than 50%; they include Detroit, Baltimore, New York, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Denver and Houston." Ok so less then half graduation rates in our major cities and only 70% over all. But then why should they study when there’s nothing left to study for. All job growth is now in the service industry such as bartenders, maids, restaurants and you hardly need to worry about graduating and preparing for higher education for those fields. In fact many students are finding it hard to find a major that will pay for their education in the long run. So what are young people doing these days?
"Nationwide, juvenile gang homicides have spiked 23 percent since 2000. There are six times as many gangs in L.A. as there were a quarter century ago, and twice as many gang members. But as important as the gang activity is it’s even more important how different the violence is now. In America’s urban ganglands, and in L.A. in particular, the ferocity of the thuggery has surged; gang members, their victims and police long on the gang beat tell the fighting has become more codeless, more arbitrary and more brutal than ever." [LA WEEKLY]. We have the highest prison population in the developed world at a staggering 2,000,000. At the rate we are heading we will have more people in prison then people that work in the manufacturing industry. But then maybe prison is our industry now.
But that’s just poor people as long as we have a middle class we’re ok. But that’s just it the middle class is fading the fastest. "One of the manifestations of the collapse of the middle class is the increased number of hours that Americans are now forced to work in order to pay the bills. Today, the average American employee works, by far, the longest hours of any worker in the industrialized world. And the situation is getting worse. According to statistics from the International Labor Organization the average American last year worked 1,978 hours, up from 1,942 hours in 1990 -- an increase of almost a week of work. We are now putting more hours into our work than at any time since the 1920s. Sixty-five years after the formal establishment of the 40-hour work week under the Fair Labor Standards Act, almost 40 percent of Americans now work more than 50 hours a week." [Buzz flash]. RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosures, reckons up to 1.5m households will enter the process this year, double last year's figure. And with some 2.5m adjustable-rate mortgages resetting to higher rates before the end of 2008, everyone knows there is much worse to come.
Speaking of insolvent the treasury/OMB report released last year reveals that America itself is insolvent. That’s right if you count current debt + all financial commitments as of 2006 its over 400% of GDP and will be impossible to pay off! But the back bone to our empire is the US dollar. Right now the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency but as it is imploding many are running as far and fast as they can. Make no mistake if there is a real run on the dollar the empire ends. Paul Craig writes "When the dollar ceases to be the reserve currency, foreigners will cease to finance the US trade and budget deficits, and the American Empire along with its wars will disappear overnight."
Ladies and gentlemen we are on the edge of a cliff.
Ron Paul would appear to be the best chance to avoid catastrophe since he actually sees the problems and has solutions. It would be very hard for a president to fix a problem if he/she didn’t even know it existed or worse yet tried to ignore it all together. Probably the most frightening scenario and one that we must consider is that many of our politicians are not just ignoring the problems but actively promoting the problems for personal gain.
So I ask again, can Ron Paul save us?
Let’s start with the things that Ron Paul can do by himself. He can start by pulling us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. He can refuse to get us into anymore costly adventures. He can veto every pork filled bill he can get his hands on. Most importantly he can use the mouth piece of the office to return America to a place of respect and trust. He can reach out to the entire country to get us behind him to do the really tough things.
At this point the burden is off of him and on the rest of us. It’s going to be impossible to turn this train wreck around unless the nation rallies behind him. And rally we must if we are fortunate to get the opportunity. For too long we have grown comfortable with assuming our responsibilities end in the voting booth. It won’t end there even if Paul is elected. He will be fighting a machine that has been engaged in a blood lust frenzy of devouring the carcass for a long time.
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 90
thumbs so far
The views expressed
in this article are those of Scrappy Koala only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Scrappy Koala is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Yes, I think Ron Paul can save our crumbling Empire/Republic, but cutting off 60%+ of our problems! Bringing ALL of our troops home, and/or securing our borders using some of the troops. Sending the illegals home. Getting rid of the Federal Reserve will solve alot of economic problems, interest, unequal taxing, plastic problems and alot more. Downsizing the gov. and getting rid of useless expense. Any middle-class to poor knows how to stretch the income. We do it everyday. We need Ron Paul because he is very knowlegable about economics and what we can or cannot afford. Those running our government today, don't have a clue. They have us so deeply in debt, we will never get out...unless we get someone who knows what they are doing. And thats RON PAUL!
talk is Ron Paul might run independant because he has no winning chance against the pack. personally i have only recently (glenn beck interview) made him my definite choice. good article...america needs ron paul. it's a shame we "passive conservatives" have allowed the "liberal sobs" to get us where we are...in deeeeeep stuff.
Maybe Ron Paul -could- do something, but the ship has already sailed. The time to act for America has come and gone a long time ago. Even with Ron Paul driving the Resolute desk there is still inertia to consider. The frightening situation with education will not be resolved in a 4 [or 8] year time frame.
The situation with the baby boomers retiring cannot be stopped. All the moneys due will have to be generated, which means the US requires a strong manufacturing base. However, US corporations have basically given the third world their economy and now the US has to rebuild its own. That won't happen overnight. Because of the poor state of education the people who would have to work in the manufacturing industry won't be ready to take up their places. They are not educated enough and they are not interested in a blue collar job. The internal violence will take two generations at least to work itself out. The ridiculous size of the prison population, and its serious prejudice against black males, means societal dislocation on a massive scale. Poster comments on the breakdown of 'code' in gangland violence. This seems to indicate that the people in the gangs at this point don't even have the cultural background to grasp what the meaning of a gang really is. It indicates that the violence will only grow worse over time as it will be perpetrated for the same reason it is used in thar societies. It is the toxic system of values that cannot look beyond the immediate moment and does not bear any corrective voice or force to build from within. It is a recipe for disaster as it will grow out of control and consume everything it touches into more vectors to perpetrate violence.
Against this bleak canvas there are vested interests that will work against any design government has against their best self interests. Congress is by now so deeply corrupted by the corporations that there is not even a semblance of justice. The president and his government have acted so pervasively, so relentlessly and so thoroughly against the will of the people and they are not held accountable for their actions.
This administration will leave office one year from January and the will not have been so much as censored for their conduct. In the mean time American society is falling apart. -If- whomever takes the wheel is actually aware, actually willing and actually able to do something against the implosion of the empire, they will have to act decisively. They will need to make harsh decisions that will not make them popular.
Jim Carter was scoffed at for suggesting austerity in the wake of the first real oil crisis. Whomever takes the Oval Office is going to have to implement measures that will make Jim Carter look like the quintessential big spender. In the mean time the US will find that the rest of the world won't be interested to wait for them to catch up.
While the US is desperately trying to save the sinking ship the rest of the world will move on. The US is already irrelevant because other nations see, if the US doesn't want to itself, that the country is in an existential crisis the likes of which it has never seen [not even in the Civil War]. Demands made by the US are no longer heeded, comments made by US officials are shrugged off, the actions they take are seen as hostile and contrary to the interests of the countries where the US chooses to deploy.
Only stringent measures would pull the US back from the brink. Even then it would take years of hard work and a relentless drive to get back to the top spot. This won't be possible because of all the forces working against reform. The US is only the latest country history has dumped in the garbage can of failed empires. It could have learned from the mistakes of previous empires however, hubris prevents any such lesson to sink in before it is too late.
The only lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn lessons from history.
Want to comment on
this article? Leave your comment
here. Your email address is required to track your
comment. However, we will neither publish your email
address nor distribute it to other organizations or
persons. The only reason we might use it would be if
we needed to contact you regarding your comment. All
comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
