9 Signs of America in Decline

Reader Comments
Back to blog

The next global crisis will be caused by ________.
a. United State banking/investment de-regulation causing a massive worldwide problem.
b. United States invading a sovreign nation causing destabliization of an entire region and massive fluxuations/uncertainty in energy prices while draining the resources of the U.S.
c. United States failure to enact health insurance reforms thus causing nationwide epidemic of bankruptcies reducing the economic power of the U.S.
d. United State for not being responsible with its own dollar policy. The dollar is the money of choice for most international trade. Deficits, exporting manufacturing jobs, 2 wars, etc.
e. Switzerland/Sweden/Norway/Finland for taking care of its people by regulating their economy appropriatly rather than listen to Ayan Rand free-market unregulated capitalism rhetoric.
If we keep this up, the world WILL be looking for someone else to help them. China is on the rise while the U.S. falters by selling our debt and shipping our jobs and resources to them.

Ed of DE 4:53PM October 26, 2009

All of Americas and the worlds problems are based on population. Too many people to keep meaningfully and productively employed, declining non renewable resources, degrading renewable resources, pollution, waste disposal, health care, tribal and religious conflicts current and to come, potable water, agricultural space, global weather change, the list is endless. No one dares to speak of population control. Jump ahead to 2075, consider a world population of 30 billion; please don't

William Stuart of CT 4:53PM October 26, 2009

Too late. Our career politicians have institutionalized their tenure through tax laws, campaign financing laws and delivering pork to an "asleep at the wheel" public. Now that more than 50% of voters benefit from the welfare state we have become, we will never change course. Beginning with FDR, we have condemned ourselves to enslavement with liberal programs that have no end and can't be paid for. Champagne at sunset, anyone?

Ed Morgan of MD 4:49PM October 26, 2009

Too late. Our career politicians have institutionalized their tenure through tax laws, campaign financing laws and delivering pork to an "asleep at the wheel" public. Now that more than 50% of voters benefit from the welfare state we have become, we will never change course. Beginning with FDR, we have condemned ourselves to enslavement with liberal programs that have no end and can't be paid for. Champagne at sunset, anyone?

Ed Morgan of MD 4:46PM October 26, 2009

Your article forgot to mention that the United States, along with Portugal, have the two most unequal and disparate economies among the advanced industrial countries. We average a ratio of 10:1 (rich to poor) whereas Japan and Europe are around 3 or 4:1. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poor while the middle-class is heading for the former. This, I believe, is also a major indicator of well-being, jobs, etc. My source is the book, "The Spirit Level" by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett: Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/13/the-spirit-level
Aside from the above-mentioned source, just take a look around. Who's been getting bailed out and who hasn't? When have you seen such an egregious divide between the haves and the have-nots lately?

Las Vegas Liberal of NV 4:39PM October 26, 2009

America is, indeed, in free fall. The Boomers and the Sixties did this to us. The Boomers' parents were, indeed, usually racists, sexists, and homophobes. Guilty as charged. But they were also, compared to their hapless offspring, self-disciplined, hard-working, focused, competent, less materialistic, and much more oriented towards their communities, their churches, and their nation--instead of the great Boomer mantra of "looking out for number one" in our golden age of narcissism. The Boomers truly have nowhere to hide. They've been running the show for the past twenty disastrous years, highlighted by Clinton's incompetent economic team which took the nation on a joyride and then set us up for the economic collapse we've experienced now. And then Bush's equally disastrously arrogant imperial overreach in Iraq, America's Sicilian Expedition, when our Thucydides writes our final historical obituary and narrates our self-destruction through hubris, folly, cluelessness, and raw incompetence. The Boomers literally wrecked their families, often more than once, in their heedless pursuit of childish pleasure. Then they wrecked the whole country for dessert. Their parents left them the most powerful country in world history. The Boomers now leave their kids and grandkids a country in terminal decline, and hopeless debt. A legacy their descendants will have to struggle with all their desperate lives. What a generation!

Fred White of MD 4:38PM October 26, 2009

The US may be "in decline" as a global hegemon, but the Western values of freedom and democracy clearly appear to be spreading.
Evidence of such values becoming more and more the norm, around the world, can be found at the website for Freedom House at http://www.freedomhouse.org
As our democratic values become globalized, slowly but surely, over time, there will probably be less of a need to be the lone superpower, as there will be many many allies throughout the world to work with on various issues.
Not the worst scenario.
It's the deficit and current state of the US economy that's the most immediate and pressing problem.
Oh, and the fact that we clearly cannot successfully play Globocop in the Middle East (there needs to be a Middle Eastern version of NATO that deals with affairs in the immediate region, as in so Globocop doesn't have to maintain a perpetual presence over there).

Angie Koutrotsios of IL 4:30PM October 26, 2009

No. America will be asked to step up and lead because we showed how smart and capable we are in leading in ______________.
a. Iraq
b. The bailout of Wall Street
c. Afghanistan
d. climate change
e. return on money spent toward health care

Clay Allison of TX 4:27PM October 26, 2009

1) Pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. For that matter, bring home all troops stationed anywhere around the world not involved in pre-existing obligations, such as UN peacekeeping operations. 2) Reform the entire financial sector from top to bottom, if the big banks complain, nationalize them! 3) Single payer healthcare - pass it NOW! 4) Stop rewarding corporations that send American jobs overseas. If they want tax breaks, they have to show proof each year that they have created and maintained a certain predetermined number of well-paying, middle class jobs. 5) Raise the minimum wage to a livable wage! That should a least get things moving in the right direction again but none are likely to happen with our corporate-owned government and the fastest sell-out of a President in history.

mdk of FL 4:27PM October 26, 2009

The money that we have spent on our war machine is what has brought this country down. If we had reinvested the cost of every bomb into our infrastructure, and education system we wouldn't be in this predicament. Bombs are not like trees and they do not bare fruit. It's like burning money and starving the country.

Michelle of CA 4:22PM October 26, 2009