Their phony data was good enough to con the us for a hell of a long time. Whose strategy was it to "send them broke" competing in the arms race? I recall Reagan was credited with it, its difficult to beleive no one had sussed out the inherent weakness before. Oh wait, they did, the russians were big on cardboard tanks and that kind of thing, ala, d-day plans circa ww2, a fact the us was well aware of for a long time before the kremlin gave way. Incidentally , isnt osamas stated aim to send the us broke, just as he did against the russians in afghanistan? (broke, too politically screwed to care, same thing) It seems a sound strategy. Paper tanks and paper money seem to be equivalent. Are there some valid solutions?
. Fan27: A comparison of the USA to the British Empire makes more sense. I am not saying that the US does not have problems and are best days are probably behind us. All democracies eventually fail. Hopefully this time, it will be different. As for the Soviet Union having the 2nd largest economy until the late eighties, what are you basing that conclusion on? Phony economic data from the Kremlin? Their economy sucked. I am sure that would have been apparent from going into the homes of 99.5 % of the Russians. **** South America: In September 2002 I wrote an article that was published in various newspapers and magazine âCountdown to Armageddonâ â quoting from that article: The Soviet Union Collapse In the summer of 1986 I was present at a dinner party in my mother's house, and she had about twelve guests at that diner. Among their friends, who were present that evening, there were two couples who came to the United States from Rumania, and they had been living in the U.S. since the early 1970's. Sometime during the evening the conversation turned to politics and economics. Then I told the people at the diner table that from all the information I had been reading about the Soviet Union for a while, I had come to the conclusion that there was a very good probability that the Soviet Union was in the process of going broke. Remember this was in 1986, Ronald Reagan was telling everyone about the potential dangers and threats from the Soviet Evil Empire. Our friend from Rumania told me in an emphatic voice "Fifty years from now the Soviets still will be one of the major powers in the world. I lived under Soviet rule, and I know how powerful they are." I never forgot that evening because I became the joke of that dinner. I was the only person in the world to believe that the Soviet Union was going bankrupt. That evening, everyone had a good laugh at my expense. They thought I was out of my mindâthe Soviet Union going broke, what a silly idea. Where does this guy get these crazy ideas? When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989-1990 nobody was laughing at me any longer. About a month ago I went to a party to commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary of that Rumanian friend. I reminded him of that party in 1986. He told me that he still can't believe to this day what happened to the Soviet Union. The Soviets had made such a big impression on him that after all these years, he still is in shock from the Soviet Union's demise. ********* SouthAmerica: I donât know how old you are, but in 1986 and until 1990 most of the world believed that the Soviet Union had a strong economy â the Soviet Union used to be considered a superpower. If Americans were not afraid of the Soviets â then why the US government mortgaged the future of the country fighting wars in Vietnam, and a massive military spending since the Reagan years? The Russians still have today the 20,000 nuclear weapons from the Soviet Unionâs days, but after the Soviet economic collapsed the Soviet economy imploded â Today the Russian economy it is just a shadow of what the old Soviet economy used to be. Today, the US is putting all its eggs in one basket â military spending â tomorrow after the American economyâs implosion you will have a basket case with lots of the mother of all bombs, plus a lot of nuclear weapons â and so what? The Chinese and the Europeans will have the infrastructure, and the economic capabilities of the future â Americans will still think that they are the rulers of the world in the same way that the British still living in the past and to this day they think that they are one of the rulers of the world â when in reality they are not even the rulers of Europe today. .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from southamerica: . 50 percent of the graduating high school students âclass of 2005â canât read or write -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please show me a legitimate source for this little tidbit of information. ...or admit you made it up.
What Iraqi fiasco? And the last Shuttle was a success. SA... I think you WANT America to fall apart. Whatever you BELIEVE is going to happen, is also what you WANT to happen... P.S. This thread should of been called: "The Decaying of some of the minds in America" Do you think you would be included in this? IF not, then you really really need some meds and fast....
. Rearden Metal : Quote from southamerica: . 50 percent of the graduating high school students âclass of 2005â canât read or write -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please show me a legitimate source for this little tidbit of information. ...or admit you made it up. ******* SouthAmerica: Lou Dobbs the anchor of CNN Moneyline had a feature on his program in the week of August 22 to August 26, 2005 â check the transcripts of his program for that week. He mentioned more than once a study just published that said that 50 percent of the graduating high school students âclass of 2005â donât have the basic skills in English and in Math to go to college. .
Rearden Metal : Quote from southamerica: . 50 percent of the graduating high school students âclass of 2005â <b>canât read or write</b> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He mentioned more than once a study just published that said that 50 percent of the graduating high school students âclass of 2005â <b>donât have the basic skills in English and in Math to go to college.</b> . [/B][/QUOTE] _______________ No wonder you chose not to respond the first time. I'd be pretty embarrassed to give that answer too.
we all knew what he meant... the decline in education levels is atrocious. personally, my county's school system (of my youth) rated in the top 1% in the US. now, it resembles that of a third world country. but rearden you already knew this because you went to the gaza strip when you were 11.
. Rearden Metal : No wonder you chose not to respond the first time. I'd be pretty embarrassed to give that answer too. ********* SouthAmerica: In todayâs world a college degree represents what a high school degree used to represent for the past generations prior to the 1970âs. Today even a job at a Burger King requires a minimum of brainpower to handle their cash registers. You have to have a minimum of skills to handle computer terminals and different screens in the simplest jobs. If you canât meet even the minimum requirement in English, and math skills you have a major problem finding a job of any kind in our society today. .
. July 26, 2006 SouthAmerica: I have been watching the news on television and I find hard to believe that they are talking about the US electric power grid. It looks to me like they are talking about the electric grid of a 3rd world country. In California it is becoming a routine to have blackouts every summer. But now other parts of the US electric power grid are also becoming quickly obsolete â like in New York and in other states. Today the US is looking more like an ex- superpower than anything else. Deregulation of the energy industry worked real well in the US - Enron scandal, regular blackouts, not reliable sources of electric power, lack of investments and poor maintenance of power grid, and so on... If it started looking like a "Banana Republic" then..... .