Here is a great clip of Jesse Ventura on Larry King.. He actually visited Cuba when he was Governor... obviously without Washington's consent. Anyhow, he says that he wants to be the ambassador to Cuba and that America should open its doors. He is a pretty intelligent guy. http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/05/jesse_ventura_c.php
'canada has a higher standard of living than the united states along with sweden, norway, denmark, holland, belgium, luxembourg et al' That is because US has to dole out half a trillion of green bucks each year to save your rears from getting overpowered and spanked by the russians, germans or fanatic islamists. still numbers may speak one way but reality is different, other than the free healthcare and lopsided welfare services in europe, the standard and quality of living in the US is still higher. I have known many Germans, Italians, French, British and Swiss who do would prefer to stay in the US and I am not kidding just for the sake of the argument.
GDP per capita can be misleading. Ever hear the example: Bill gates walks into a bar - what is the average wealth of everyone in the bar? Well, on average, they're all millionaires!!! The US has an extreme concentration of wealth - the most billionaires in the world by far. Much of the wealth enjoyed by the middle class was illusory. But no need to argue about it - just watch events unfold.
It's a semantic point, of course... but when most of us are referring to the "socialist" drift in the USA we (or at least certainly I) don't strictly mean "ownership by the state". What we're really talking about is the move ever further away from capitalism and towards fascism... a "socialistic directional move", though not inferring state ownership.... but who knows, maybe THAT'S in our future too..
jueco2005, Good post. Socialism will not stay around in the US. There will be a full blown Revolution, violent or not before Socialism takes hold of America. What is going to happen under OBAMA, the Rich will get richer, (I'm making more money under the idiot than I did while Bush was in office), the Middle Class in Debt will fall to Poverty levels and the poor, will stay poor. History, From Eisenhower, to LBJ, to Regan to Clinton, has showed that Seats are lost in the Mid Term Elections when "Eventful" Presidents take office. Clinton lost both Houses in Congress. So, 2010 OBAMA will loose his upper hand. He may not loose both houses but I predict he will loose well over 30 seats. However, for the Financial industry, as in BANKS, TRADING FIRMS and "STOCK MARKETS"....OBAMA will destroy them. There is nothing one can do about it. But then again, returning back to "CAPITALISM" as in Land, Capital, Workers and Manufacting actual products will be the best thing this country can do. Writting is on the wall.
Good point misthos. However, we can always look at earnings (for which GDP is merely a proxy) more closely. We can look at earnings by quintile and or within a certain region. In doing that, we have to be careful to remember that the United States is the only country that doesn't account for redistribution of earnings in its calculations. Accounting for redistribution of wealth would lower the differences between quintiles for American earnings as it does for European earnings because it would account for what is taken from the upper quintiles and what is redistributed to the lower quintiles. If we compare earnings on a PPP basis, then the average European lives about as well as the average Alabaman. The second poorest state in the union. If you ever visit Europe and find yourself invited into a Eureopean home, you'll see for yourself. I used to live there.
Yes, best we could do... but least likely. Government has been clawing for ever greater control of everything all along. They won't give that up. Sadly, they made great (catastrophic?) strides last November.
Jueco2005, My apologies for getting to this post late, I hope you do answer this: What is your opinion of the movie The Lost City (I think is the name) with Andy Garcia. Can you recommend a good book that chronicles Castro's reign of terror, esp in the early years Thanks, NIck
Sorry but that made me laugh out loud My father is Cuban but came here in 1961 so we have no modern experiences of the island but it sounded great in the 1950s. If US opened relations you can imagine the pouring in of tourist and travel money from the US that one would assume could help down there but I am sure would go into the wrong hands. But I do thank my father for cuban sandwhiches, pasteles, ropa vieja, congre y platanos maduros. I never leave the Miami area without hitting Versailles en Calle Ocho (not top of the line but still love it).
I loved the movie. Trough one just single family you can see the division and passion at the time. Then you also see how each person ends up and families are turned apart. I loved the movie. There is a book I have in mind. I will get back to you tomorrow with the title. Have a good one.