Is America actually in decline? An interesting take on it:
Showing posts with label superpower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label superpower. Show all posts
June 1, 2021
October 7, 2010
Food Stamps For Everyone!
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| Food Stamps. Tasty. |
You know what these things in the picture are? They're food stamps. You know how many people in the United States are currently using food stamps? 41.8 million people. That's more than the entire population of Argentina. At last check, Argentina was NOT a super-power. Argentina has a GDP per capita of $14,525 according to the IMF (2009). The United States by comparison has a GDP per capita of $45,934. Three times that of Argentina.
According to Bloomberg,
The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 41.8 million in July as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government said.
Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18 percent from a year earlier and increased 1.4 percent from June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 20 straight months.
Yet the United States, the one that's the superpower, has more people on food stamps than the entire country of Argentina. For a family of 3 (roughly the average family size in the U.S.), in order to qualify for food stamps, the family's Gross Income must be under $23,808 to qualify for food stamps. That's not that far from Argentina's GDP per capita.
In Argentina roughly 20% of the population is below the poverty line. In the United States, the number varies but is typically in the teens. Based on the recent numbers, 13.6% of the United States is currently on food stamps. So things aren't all that rosy. Curiously, 20 straight months of growing food stamp use happens to coincide with the number of months President Obama has been in power. Hmmmmm. Maybe the President should kick off some sort of War on Poverty. It could be a green movement too! I don't like the direction of that line of thinking. But I bet a lot of Democrats do.
February 17, 2009
China Crisis - Part 3
Where will China be in 2050? Where will the US be?
I've talked about this before. The Chinese have the worlds largest military, though in terms of effectiveness and equipment, they certainly lag far behind America. In terms of their economy they are growing at a phenomenal rate and are expected to overtake the US as the world's largest economy in the coming decades. In terms of belligerence, it's hard to say.
Where will the United States be? That's even harder to say. Will it still be a superpower? Likely. Will it still be THE superpower? Less likely. Will it still be a power? Highly likely. Could it be a fiscally bankrupt shell of it's former self? Well, that IS possible.
Some seem content to let the rise of China allow it to surpass US preeminence to become the worlds greatest power. To that I say, hogwash. [Sometimes the way I write it would appear as though I'm living in the 1850's, but such is not the case, good sir.]
There is no reason an emerging China can not be both a boon and a threat to America. And there is certainly no reason to go quietly into that good night. The point being that America has an opportunity to profit, and profit greatly from an emerging mega-market if it plays it's card right. And perhaps that's the rationale behind the most favored nation status afforded the Chinese. America has an opportunity to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with China, not constraint by the thinking that the resulting boom in trade is a zero-sum game.
Conversely, the United States must continue to innovate, strive for and achieve greatness. Japan has emerged as an economic power, and decades ago, it was perceived that they would be the ones to overtake America as the preeminent economic power. Yet America remains. And even more importantly, her ideals remain (if not in the current crop of pork-pushers, at least in the hearts and minds of men and women not only in America, but around the world). Given the will of those who are blessed by it, America as a nation will continually inhabit the international apogee, because America as a notion, is inviolable.
Now about that will part, it needs to be able to compete with a will like this;
and this;
and this;
I'm just letting you know.
I've talked about this before. The Chinese have the worlds largest military, though in terms of effectiveness and equipment, they certainly lag far behind America. In terms of their economy they are growing at a phenomenal rate and are expected to overtake the US as the world's largest economy in the coming decades. In terms of belligerence, it's hard to say.
Where will the United States be? That's even harder to say. Will it still be a superpower? Likely. Will it still be THE superpower? Less likely. Will it still be a power? Highly likely. Could it be a fiscally bankrupt shell of it's former self? Well, that IS possible.
Some seem content to let the rise of China allow it to surpass US preeminence to become the worlds greatest power. To that I say, hogwash. [Sometimes the way I write it would appear as though I'm living in the 1850's, but such is not the case, good sir.]
There is no reason an emerging China can not be both a boon and a threat to America. And there is certainly no reason to go quietly into that good night. The point being that America has an opportunity to profit, and profit greatly from an emerging mega-market if it plays it's card right. And perhaps that's the rationale behind the most favored nation status afforded the Chinese. America has an opportunity to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with China, not constraint by the thinking that the resulting boom in trade is a zero-sum game.
Conversely, the United States must continue to innovate, strive for and achieve greatness. Japan has emerged as an economic power, and decades ago, it was perceived that they would be the ones to overtake America as the preeminent economic power. Yet America remains. And even more importantly, her ideals remain (if not in the current crop of pork-pushers, at least in the hearts and minds of men and women not only in America, but around the world). Given the will of those who are blessed by it, America as a nation will continually inhabit the international apogee, because America as a notion, is inviolable.
Now about that will part, it needs to be able to compete with a will like this;
and this;
and this;
I'm just letting you know.
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