World Powers in 2030? a shift in the balance of power continues

g2mil.com ^ | Summer 2005 | Carlton Meyer

[jveritas]

Since Americans are addicted to govt. programs and the govt. is addicted to spending non existant money on said programs

No where near what is going on in socialist EU and communist China.

[general_re]

Have a little patience. Next time you're there, take a stroll (actually, don't) through places like Clos Saint-Lazare.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Would you say the Japanese would be in dire straits in the future because they're reproducing below the replacement rate?

Yes. Their stock of human capital is not being replenished, and future increases in per-capita productivity won't compensate.

[Destro]

I am talking about deficit spending not what it is spent on. I love the battle cry - We Americans are not as Socialist as the EU and China!!

[Destro]

Ever stroll through Bed-Sty, Brooklyn? At night??

[jveritas]

I have been there too, and I saw a lot of misery among most of Parisians, because they barely make a living.

The problem with France and the EU is that people make less money on average than those in the US, they pay more taxes than what Americans do, and almost everything is more expensive to purchase than in the US. That is why we live much better than the snobby Europeans, and they know it, and they are very jealous.

[jveritas]

Just wait until their sex imbalance explodes because they have been killing off their girl babies for decades.

That is an excellent point.

[general_re]

Thus far, the residents of Bed-Stuy are not blowing up the NYC mass-transit system. How about Madrid?

[Destro]

Um - you forgot about the train bomb plot then that the NYPD busted? Said jihadists lived in Brooklyn.

[jveritas]

We Americans are not as Socialist as the EU and China!!

We are not socialist period. We are the real free Market Capitalist economy in the world.

[general_re]

Maybe we should export some of New York's finest.

[Destro]

Plenty of Chinese girls born outside of China.

[general_re]

The real difference, of course, is that, unlike Paris, the Islamic community is not nearly so segregated and insular in the US.

[Destro]

Social Security? Medicaid? Medicare? Welfare? NASA? Where have you been? Whe just are too ashamed to call ourselves for what we are - a Socialist nation, albiet on the light side of pink.

[Destro]

Yes, the issue is intergration or lack there of. Thomas Freidman's new book "The Earth is Flat" about what globalization is doing postulates that the brain drain into America is slowing down and will stop. Because of technology and globalization people need not pull up roots and leave theor home nation to prosper. I am not a fan of Freidman but since we are having fun predicting the future I thought I would toss that in here.

[jveritas]

The problem general is that vast majority of Americans only see the best part of Paris (Champs Elysee, trip on the Seine river, Louvres, Notre Dame, Cedex de Defense etc...) and they do not see the remaining 70% of Paris where poverty and misery rule. They need to take a trip in the metro to see poverty on people faces. The same things apply for many other European cities.

[jveritas]

NASA is now a socialist government program according to Destro.

Social security will always remain and hopefully President Bush will make it more "free Market" driven through private accounts.