Molly Ivans has an excellent article titled, “Big Time Trouble: America continues to weaken, but why worry?,” that pings a lot of valid points about the recent declination of America. From the article:
“What, me worry?” The U.S. is over $7 trillion in debt (no problem); China buys $1 billion worth of U.S. treasury bills a day (thanks for floating us); Americans love the prices at Wal-Mart (made in China, cute!); the Chinese save 50 percent of their domestic product; the average American has $9,000 on his credit cards; our economy is fueled by a fragile housing bubble; the minimum wage is $5.15 per hour…; taxpayers who earn over $1 million saved $30K under Bush tax cuts; the war in Iraq costs $9 billion a month; by 2040, our kids will be unable to do more than pay the interest on the national debt … ; bankruptcy reform makes it impossible to escape your debts…
Similarly, Bush purposefully deflated the value of the US dollar in his first term, thinking it would strengthen business with our international partners. It didn’t. She also comments on the current “personal moral outrage” fad:
During the past five years, both media and political circles have devoted an enormous amount of attention to social issues and culture wars — rise of the Christian Right, anti-abortion groups, our debates over moral decline and moral relativism, prayer in the schools, school vouchers, displaying the Ten Commandments, sex and violence in entertainment, bias in the news media, gay marriage and all the rest of it. I sometimes think all of it amounts to a bunch of people saying, “The world would be a much better place if everybody else thought exactly the same way I do.” Reminds me of Dr. Henry Higgins in his famous philosophical disquisition, “Why Can’t A Woman Be More Like A Man?” Higgins finally discovers the ultimate problem: “Why can’t a woman be more like ME?”