Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Country, Ask What Your Country Can Do For You

[trysail]

The entitled attitude of spoiled rotten Americans is exacting a heavy toll. The pigeons are coming home to roost as international markets are expressing their opinion of the future of the United States as reflected by the value of the dollar (or "peso" as some financiers now laughingly refer to it).

Unconstrained government spending and ruinous Federal Reserve policies are leading to runaway inflation (a 1926 dollar is now worth $0.085- that's right, eight and a half cents!) Producers of petroleum are losing patience with America's fiscal profligacy; if continued, our out-of-control spending will inevitably lead to the pricing of petroleum in Euros or Yen or Rubles. If that occurs, one cannot help but wonder how we are going to acquire the Euros, Yen, or Rubles to pay for the fuel that lights the dark and keeps us warm in the winter. Do you really believe the world is interested in purchasing our mass tort manufacturing ambulance chasers? Americans obviously believe that Nigeria, Iran, Venezuela, Russia and Saudi Arabia will be perfectly willing to accept home delivered pepperoni pizzas in exchange for petroleum.

Notwithstanding the pronouncements of pandering populist demogogues, it is, ultimately, impossible to legislate economics. It is as futile an effort as Xerxes' attempt to beat the Hellespont into submission. As surely as nature abhors a vacuum and water seeks the lowest level, economics will out.

• Americans clearly believe they enjoy some sort of god-given right to a perpetual supply of cheap gasoline.
• Americans believe they have a right to borrow money and no obligation to pay it back. This attitude has only been reinforced by the rush of demagogic politicians to allow deadbeats to retain possession of housing that consumers bought notwithstanding the fact that they couldn't afford it in the first place.
• Americans possess a delusional belief that they have a right to free health care.

One can't help but wonder if Americans still possess the "virtue to be self-governing." While that question is open to debate, evidence of their lack of self-discipline is becoming overwhelming.

"Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you."​

 

[gauchecritic]

Americans clearly believe they enjoy some sort of god-given right to a perpetual supply of cheap gasoline.

Liberty

Americans believe they have a right to borrow money and no obligation to pay it back.

Pursuit of happiness

Americans possess a delusional belief that they have a right to free health care.

Life

One can't help but wonder if Americans still possess the "virtue to be self-governing." While that question is open to debate, evidence of their lack of self-discipline is becoming overwhelming.

When was self-discipline ever an issue? Get yours and get it first seems to be the general rule. It's what comes of being consumerist.

"Ask not what you can do for your country, or your country can do for you, simply chant the mantra:
I want it all
I want it now"​

 

[sr71plt]

I always thought that Kennedy quote was catchy but shallow. The only reason to form into a country at all is to better the lives of its individual citizens. If the country isn't doing "it" for you, why is the country doing it at all? (And I'm an Eleanor Roosevelt liberal.)

 

[trysail]

Get yours and get it first seems to be the general rule. It's what comes of being consumerist.

I'm doing my utmost to remain solvent so that it will be possible for the tooth fairy and Santa Claus to tax me to death. Fortunately, the transformation of the United States of America into a third world country is providing swell diversion while I await the inevitable impoverishment that will result when the demagogic pols finish emptying my wallet.

 

[sr71plt]

Third World status has its advantages. You don't have to prove much of anything or be expected to be the international protector against rogue states, or worry about other states trying to knock you off the pedestal no matter what you do. Have you read/seen The Mouse That Roared? Good stuff.

 

[Ootpic]

While I agree with your partial list of what is causing the rapid decline in the American dollar, I feel you do the average American citizen an injustice in blaming him for those forces which were beyond his control.

What is the American citizens' fault, is an antipathy against voting (if he bothered to vote) for people who were demonstrably more intelligent than he.

This bias against intelligence, education and experience, which was evident from at least the 1950s (Remember “Eggheads?”) has at its nadir produced the presidency of George Bush, the lesser.

 

[kendo1]

This bias against intelligence, education and experience, which was evident from at least the 1950s (Remember “Eggheads?”) has at its nadir produced the presidency of George Bush, the lesser.

So the American Presidential nomination system is designed to enable the most capable person to become President?

 

[oggbashan]

So the American Presidential nomination system is designed to enable the most capable person to become President?

I thought it was the person with the most money to spend - just like the election for Russian President tomorrow.

Og

 

[3113]

I thought it was the person with the most money to spend

Or the richest father

 

[kendo1]

Or the richest father

Kind of like a monarchy then?

 

[oggbashan]

Kind of like a monarchy then?

Except that monarch's grandsons go to war unlike Presidents' sons and grandsons.

 

[kendo1]

Except that monarch's grandsons go to war unlike Presidents' sons and grandsons.

They're exempt?

 

[oggbashan]

They're exempt?

Since Roosevelt. A Roosevelt went ashore on D-Day.

Og

 

[kendo1]

Since Roosevelt. A Roosevelt went ashore on D-Day.

Og

Is it legal or just because?

 

[3113]

Except that monarch's grandsons go to war unlike Presidents' sons and grandsons.

Now, now. Joe Kennedy's sons fought in WWII, which is why we got John as president--because Joe, jr. was killed.

 

[oggbashan]

Now, now. Joe Kennedy's sons fought in WWII, which is why we got John as president--because Joe, jr. was killed.

But since WWII?

Churchill went ashore himself shortly after the D-Day landings. So did King George VI. Churchill had to be persuaded not to take part in the initial assault.

How many politicians' sons went to Vietnam?

Og

 

[kendo1]

But since WWII?

Churchill went ashore himself shortly after the D-Day landings. So did King George VI. Churchill had to be persuaded not to take part in the initial assault.

How many politicians' sons went to Vietnam?

Og

*sits back and watches the mudslinging*

 

[shereads]

I prefer to ask what someone else's country can do for me, and how my country can use its military might to make them do it.

 

[kendo1]

I prefer to ask what someone else's country can do for me, and how my country can use its military might to make them do it.

We've been there, done it. Decadence is soothing.

 

[sr71plt]

But since WWII?

Churchill went ashore himself shortly after the D-Day landings. So did King George VI. Churchill had to be persuaded not to take part in the initial assault.

How many politicians' sons went to Vietnam?

Og

I do believe they dissuaded Churchill because he had a miserable record of military failures. I think they were hedging against the jinx, weren't they?

Oh, and my U.S. senator's son just (famously) got back from Iraq. The senator carried his son's laced boots around hung over his shoulder throughout his campaign (and is quite vocally anti-U.S. presence in Iraq).

 

[shereads]

I'm glad Prince Harry is home safe and sound, btw. He's to be commended, whatever one's views on the war, for wanting to share the burden his country asks of other young men his age.

 

[Katyusha]

• Americans clearly believe they enjoy some sort of god-given right to a perpetual supply of cheap gasoline.
• Americans believe they have a right to borrow money and no obligation to pay it back. This attitude has only been reinforced by the rush of demagogic politicians to allow deadbeats to retain possession of housing that consumers bought notwithstanding the fact that they couldn't afford it in the first place.
• Americans possess a delusional belief that they have a right to free health care.

I read something somewhere that resounded with me...discussing how democracy is doomed to fail in every case. Why is it doomed to fail? Because at some point, the populace shifts from believing in its own self-sufficiency to believing that the government should provide everything for them. It's a gradual shift, not something that happens within a year or even a decade.

I agree with you about the housing situation...while I do know that lenders had predatory lending practices and programs that were just plain stupid and shortsighted, it's still up to each person to be fully aware of every single term of their loan, and NOT to bet on money they don't yet have. What happened is that a lot of people got ARM's with those 1%-3% introductory rates that would revert to the standard rate within three to five years, and people would jump on it either because they didn't listen to what their new payment was likely to be, or they were assuming they'd get those big raises and promotions by then. In short, they, too, were very shortsighted and even naive. Should the lenders have preyed on that? No. But you can keep any company at all from preying on you if you inform yourself.

About healthcare, what I don't see is why people think we MUST fall in line with the rest of the world when the systems that most of the rest of the world has are breaking down. We tried to fall in line with what the rest of the world tried ten years ago in regards to education (No Child Left Behind) and that's already a failure, but the countries that have already tried that have also already discovered that having teachers teach to tests, and closing schools that don't meet those testing standards, doesn't work. But did we see THAT? No. We just saw what countries like Japan had done in the past and believed that it could work because Japan's education system is better than ours.

Instead of making the government responsible for providing healthcare, why don't we put our best minds and problem-solvers (not necessarily government employees or officials) in a think tank and have them come up with a solution that might actually be workable, that would make healthcare available and affordable AND sustainable?

 

[3113]

*sits back and watches the mudslinging*

Naw. Ain't gonna argue that point. Og may indeed be right. We'll certainly grant that neither Clinton nor Bush, jr. went to 'Nam. As for sending their sons and daughters to war....I don't know how many presidents post WWII had sons rather than daughters and a war to send them to. There wasn't any real war for Reagan's boy.

Of course, Bush jr. COULD have sent his daughters to Iraq. That I'd like to have seen!

One of my fave cartoons on just that subject: Opus

 

[sr71plt]

They're exempt?

Yeah. Of course, everyone is who doesn't voluntarily join the military or national guard. We don't have a draft now, and when we did, it was for males only--and the presidents during the Vietnam War period only had daughters.

Oh, yeah, and people like me. I was sent to Vietnam but never was in the military. Hmmm. And my father was a politician. Hmmmm.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Americans are spoiled and ignorant, no doubt about it. Fat, dumb and happy (they are fairly happy, too - in international happiness surveys. More so than Latin-language European countries, but less than the Nordics).

But - the specific problem you cite - inflation, and to some extent debt - are largely the fault of the Federal Reserve keeping the money-creation spigot wide open for way too long. And not keeping control of innovative new ways the private sector found to create money, like those securitized bundles of mortgages. Yes the government spends an absurd amount - but the untuous Europeans spend more. They work less in Euroland too - Americans work more hours and take fewer days off, mostly because it's their preference.

All that said, I do worry that the political system is seriously dysfunctional, in that it's being run primarilly for the benefit of politicians and government employees, even if that hollows out the private sector economy.