America and Economic Superpower
Aby April 21st, 2007
So you think America is a global economic superpower? Think again. If you are an American, chances are you are aware of the rising US national debt of $7.782 Trillion as of April 2007. The foreign debt US owes to other countries is $2.223 Trillion of which 44% is held by the public. The current population of USA is 301,660,748. Using basic mathematics, this would peg the foreign debt at $7369 and the national debt at $25797 for every American citizen. Of this astronomical public debt, a large portion is held by banks in China, Japan and the European Union.
Graph showing US National debt for the last 6o years with inflation accounted for and corrected (Source: US National Debt Report)
In addition to the national debt, foreign companies are investing in American companies and often taking them over like Sony (Japan) which took over big American brands Warner Bros, BMG Crescendo, AXN Television, etc. The companies which are not in the takeover revolution are beating the American companies in their own turf by superior products at a cheaper rate like Toyota (Japan) beat General Motors in the US automobile market and is now the top car company in US. BMW and Ferrari which Americans pride to own are foreign companies belonging to Germany and Italy respectively. Most of the things American need and use in their daily use are foreign made as US is no longer a manufacturing hub anymore. Chances are, the computer you are using to read this is Made in China or some other country but definitely not USA.
With a national average IQ of 98, America stands below at least 30 nations which has given Americans the tag of ‘stupid’ around the world (Search in Google for Americans are Stupid to see the results if you have not traveled outside USA). The American public education system is churning out more and more people who are unskilled and unemployable in jobs that require intellect like research and development. This often requires companies to search for talent overseas who do better work at lower rates. To cover the loss of manufacturing and research jobs, the government has invented the catch phrase “service economy” which helps it reduce the unemployment figures by legislating creation of thousands of useless clerical and paper shuffling jobs. Kids do not want to be scientists or engineers as they know how these professions are hardly valued or respected in America. Instead they are choose to become lawyers, investment bankers and consultants where money can be earned by duping other American people and corporates like Microsoft. If the kids do not have the intellectual ability to get into law or consultancy, they end up as another faceless bureaucrat or corporate employee on a 9-5 job. Many of them they try their luck at sports, pop music or movies which have a very low success rate for the large number of aspirants.
In the 12 years of the Reagan and Bush administrations, the United States went from being the world’s largest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor. The administration is trying its best to conceal the scope of problem by raising tax levels and sending less tax money back to the states. In the last 8 years, the Federal government of US has totally doubled its debt load. The dollar is losing its value against the Euro as the global medium currency trade and transaction. New York slipped from the 2nd rank on IPO transaction rating in 2006 as investors are pulling out of US stock markets. In the current scenario Hong Kong (HKSE) stands second and London (LSE) at first in global IPO trades. Now the government has resorted to selling of roads and bridges which were built on taxpayers money to foreign companies to reduce the national debt.
Soon the US government, companies, public, media and other infrastructure would be directly or indirectly under the control of foreign companies like Sony, Toyota, Dassault, Airbus, etc. An average 10 year old will be able to understand a country with more than $7 trillion in debt is far from being an economic superpower.
Resources and Links on American Debt Situation
- Internationalism , America
- Comments(7)
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Bad news. We’ll have to pray for the next poor souls to their homes carpet bombed to satisfy the American greed. The bushman will do anything to make himself look clean.
I didn’t think of that. Yes, they might create problems for other countries and in national interest of course, this will not be the first time US does some dirty work and justifies with a noble cause.
We had the same debt issues after ww2 but we still remained the top.
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This is just not true. As an engineering student, I would know a lot better than you on what an American thinks of engineering. By the way, America has some of the best engineering programs in the world.
I would like to hear or read the evidence you have that America has the best engineering programs in the world. As a scientist who had been to most of US, Europe and Asia, I would say nothing matches the freedom and standard in scientific research as much as in Europe or even Russia. Americans are distinguished for taking other’s inventions and passing them as their own, often with tactic help and understanding of their courts and patent offices. Now would you be able to explain why do so many Americans believe Edison invented the light bulb or to say the same about Tesla and radio?
Dmitri it is easy to assume Edison invented the lightbulb although it was actually Mr. Davy however, it was Edison who was able to develop it and commercialize it so it could be used.. and I do believe that most people know that it was Marconi who was able to develop the first wireless radio signals and so they think of him as the one who invented it but there were many contributors along the way and Tesla was one of them just as Hertz was. You say what Americans believe but if you were to take a poll, I venture to say that most Europeans would not answer any better. As far as engineering goes, with all due respect to your engineering background and to the schools in Europe and Russia, I beg to differ and though you are certainly entitle to your opinion, some of the best engineering and research institutes and schools are right here in the USA. I mean if MIT, Stanfors, UCal, Georgia IT, Illinois IT, Cal IT and Carnegie Mellon are not some of the best then you have not doen your homework my friend..