🚀 go-pugleaf

"Zaghadka" <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:usa3q01574jid7dn955qn6vbhc616mdu8m@4ax.com...
> We need a protectionist economy and we need it now before the damage is
> irreversable. Ever hear the phrase "The wealthy remain so at the
sufference of
> the poor?" If these trends continue for another 40 years there will be
> bloodshed that will make the Union busting efforts of the early 20th C
look
> like a picnic.
>

  I'm not sure we need 70's style protectionism where we were stuck with
crappy American products, no matter what.  But we do need "fair trade".  I
think we can trade fairly with Europe.  We cannot trade fairly with China,
because the government has too much control over the economy, down to the
suppression of human rights.   With India, it just depends on how fast they
can build up their own economy internally- I have my doubts that's going to
be an easy task in a country with rampant poverty, huge internal language
barriers and high illiteracy.

  Another thing that is hurting the US is the military spending. Other
countries don't spend so much on their militaries, and those that do
inevitably have alot of problems.  One reason the Soviet union and Russia
have so many problems is because of their large military.  Saddam Hussein's
Iraq was also hobbled economicly by military spending (not to mention Saddam
Hussein's palaces).   Most countries have small militaries and don't pursue
an aggressive foreign policy anymore.  It's just not worth it to them.

   Of course, the US needs the big military because we pursue a very
interventionist foreign policy, and we are also very dependent on foreign
oil- two things that inevitably conflict.  Intervention in the Israeli-Arab
conflicts starting in the 1940's, and allying ourself with the Israeli cause
to a great degree (as oppossed to just supporting the UN mandate), is
probably the single most costly decisions the US has ever made, and I can
really see little economic or political benefit from the relationship of
supporting a country with an economy in continual recession that antagonizes
its neighbors - many of whom are powerful, have alot of oil, and can make
life unpleasant for the US.  But try telling that to the average America.
1/4 of our country believes that support of Israel is necessary by a
religious mandate.  So politicians become whores while the rest of the world
looks on in shame (remember when Clinton said he was ready to "die for
Israel"?)