Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned [by GAO comptroller David Walker]

Financial Times ^ | August 14, 2007 | Jeremy Grant

[esarlls3]

Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

By Jeremy Grant in Washington

Published: August 14 2007 00:06 | Last updated: August 14 2007 00:06

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.

These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.

Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.

“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”

...

“With the looming retirement of baby boomers, spiralling healthcare costs, plummeting savings rates and increasing reliance on foreign lenders, we face unprecedented fiscal risks,” said Mr Walker, a former senior executive at PwC auditing firm.

Current US policy on education, energy, the environment, immigration and Iraq also was on an “unsustainable path”.

...

“Our very prosperity is placing greater demands on our physical infrastructure. Billions of dollars will be needed to modernise everything from highways and airports to water and sewage systems. The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a sobering wake-up call.”

[esarlls3]

See also other threads about David Walker's writings:

• Oct 28, 2006: GAO Chief Warns Economic Disaster Looms [AP]
  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1727669/posts
• Aug 3, 2006: U.S. Comptroller General Warns the Nation of Economic Calamity [NewsMax]
  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1677107/posts

[Wiz]

Our continent is not so large and competitive as Eurasia, and we have technology to overcome the transportation and communication lags.

[Bonaparte]

"Walker, who was appointed during the Clinton administration to the post, which carries a 15-year term."

No comment.

[Grimmy]

Here’s a lesson from Rome that’s appropriate to our times:

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.”

Quote by:

Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
Date:42 B.C.
Source:Speech in the Roman Senate
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote/marcus_tullius_cicero_quote_b6ea

Another lesson is to stand fast against the leftists constantly attacking the foundations of our republic.

[onedoug]

To conclude this piece I come to my third and last heresy. My third heresy says that the United States has less than a century left of its turn as top nation. Since the modern nation-state was invented around the year 1500, a succession of countries have taken turns at being top nation, first Spain, then France, Britain, America. Each turn lasted about 150 years. Ours began in 1920, so it should end about 2070. The reason why each top nation’s turn comes to an end is that the top nation becomes over-extended, militarily, economically and politically. Greater and greater efforts are required to maintain the number one position. Finally the over-extension becomes so extreme that the structure collapses. Already we can see in the American posture today some clear symptoms of over-extension. Who will be the next top nation? China is the obvious candidate. After that it might be India or Brazil. We should be asking ourselves, not how to live in an America-dominated world, but how to prepare for a world that is not America-dominated. That may be the most important problem for the next generation of Americans to solve. How does a people that thinks of itself as number one yield gracefully to become number two? --Freeman Dyson, HERETICAL THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

[goldstategop]

Nothing will be done. The Democrats won't do it and the GOP is too chicken to reduce government and eliminate entitlements.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[JennysCool]

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

I see Walker got the DNC fax.

[CaptainK]

Chronic healthcare underfunding brought down Rome?

[microgood]

I am not sure this will bring down the country because he is looking at this from a financial responsibility point of view. For example, last year the deficit if calculated like a corporation would have to do it resulted in a deficit of 11.3 trillion due to the financial liabilities of incurred from Bush's medical prescription drug program.

What it does mean, although the US will not fall, is that noone under 55 will ever see a nickel of Social Security or Medicare. Plan ahead.

The other thing to consider is that the dollar will significantly decline in value over the next 10 years. Buy gold or another currency or something as holding on to the greenback will be suicide.

[jongaltsr]

Don’t forget the fact that in Rome the Senators were paying the Visigoths, Goths and Huns for their votes and it was the disruption caused by these foreigners that cause Rome to fall. The “Barbarians” as we refer to them, did not acclimate to the rest of Roman society.

Sound familiar with today’s situation with our Senators and Congress doing everything to get the vote from the Illegals?

[freekitty]

True. Thanks for posting this. It is the treason. It looks like GW and his group are going through with the N A U thing whether the American people like it or not. I will bet he and his cronies are not going to do anything about what we want regarding the illegals. I never liked or trusted his father; but this seems to be what GW was brought into the Presidency for. To finish his father and other’s vision of a global world. I just wish they had let us in on it.

[freekitty]

I don’t understand that one either.

[JasonC]

Well they did spend a lot on free grain for the capital, paid by the state...

[Roy Tucker]

Thomas Malthus first proposed the Demographic Doom scenario in 1798. Didn’t quite work out for him.

Forecasters such as Walker always discount man’s ability to find new technology to offset doom scenarios well before they develop. Moreover, Walker’s message appears to be “more taxes”, not surprisingly for a Democrat appointed by Bill Clinton in 1998.

[sbelew]

“Forecasters such as Walker always discount man’s ability to find new technology to offset doom scenarios well before they develop. Moreover, Walker’s message appears to be “more taxes”, not surprisingly for a Democrat appointed by Bill Clinton in 1998.”

Here’s the thing you’re missing. He’s not predicting “doom”, i.e. the end of the world, or even the end of civilization. He’s simply saying that America is in danger of economic collapse, following in the well-worn footprints of many other great civilizations/empires.

History’s great lesson is NOT “man’s ability to find new technology to offset doom scenarios”. It is that empires and civilizations rise, and they fall. Why do you think America is immune?

[black_diamond]

He didn’t tie the two together. He’s been a consistent advocate of “fixing” Social Security and Medicare, which he believes will ruin us if left unchanged. Walker, while not a conservative is no liberal either, he’s an accountant and he’s going by the numbers. The numbers show the real ticking time bomb is on Mcare and we can’t even get a grip changes to SS. He may have been appointed to head GAO under Clinton but he also served under Reagan and Bush 41.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Much as I like to root for the home team, I think this may prove to be right. I’d have to set a modern record for longevity to see 2070, though.

[drzz]

The first reason of the fall of Rome is the MORALLY fall.

Be warned : LIBERALISM never built any successful civilization anywhere, anytime.

LIBERALISM destroys civilization.

[LibLieSlayer]

USA will endure... and what is this... the left's 2,312th story trying to kill off America. It was BS the first time I read it... and the stench and decay increases with each new addition.

LLS

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

The first reason of the fall of Rome is the MORALLY fall.

Oddly enough, Rome declined as Christianity took hold. Rome at the height of its power was ridiculously decadent.

I believe you must look elsewhere for an explanation of the fall of Rome.