"Things change, but the US hasn't lost anything yet. It is only if we allow our country to drift into the socialist/communist mindset do we end up like old Europe."
What do you think has been happening to the US since the Great Society? It slowed down a little after Reagan was elected and a little more after the 94 lections, but now more and more citizens have less and less to loose, and have less and less hope for the future. Now hopfully they will see Kerry isint any better on trade/immigration issues than Bush is, but still, do you think a majority of American voters will continue to accept a falling standard of living?
If the Corps continue to gut the middle class, say hello to a social democracy, and goodbye to a free republic.
I remember back in the 70s it was MITI who was going to take over the world.
Weak argument. MITI only proves my point. MITI supercharged Japans economy for 2 decades +. It was only when they went to a floating yen and freed some trade barriers that they lost their momentum.
Japan is the world's wealthiest nation in terms of net external assets, with its residents holding $1.6 trillion in net external assets, which equals 34% of their GDP. The Japanese government also owns over $600 billion of our Treasury debt (thus owning Treasury debt equivalent to about 6% of our total GDP.)
Japan has been number one in net external assets since 1991, and looks likely to continue to be so for the foreseeable future. (It is worth nothing that both Hong Kong and Switzerland have higher ratios of net external assets to GDP; however, they also have far smaller economies, thus putting them behind Japan in absolute terms.)