Detroit's slump

[TC]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/bu...th&oref=slogin

Just another sign of our decline.
The comparison between us and the Roman Empire is becoming more apparent.
We are using slave labor in the form of illegal immigrants and spending too much time goggling at sporting events.
We make heroes of our sportsmen the same as the Romans did with its gladiators.
We are losing our ability to design and produce the simplest of articles, concentrating instead on being a service society.
We now cannot entice enough people to make our armed forces viable for all the commitments our administration would like to make.
Woe is me.

[swamprat]

I agree.

We also have been using slave labor to make many of our necessities. In 1991, the United States produced 61 percent of its clothing (still too low a percentage). Today, after NAFTA and our entry into the WTO, that figure is 5 percent.

All of our major consumer electronics are designed and built overseas.

In the meantime, free trade worshippers state that the way out of our dilemma is education. They are only partly right. Education will work if there are jobs. Newsflash: manufacturing jobs are virtually nonexistent. Over 70,000 factories have been lost since 1972.
'
If there was another place for Americans to move to, I'd be outta here. Its getting worse every day.

[Jim Rose]

>>If there was another place for Americans to move to, I'd be outta here. Its getting worse every day. <<

If you were to move to another place, you'd not be an American anymore---

[Kwozzie1]

Seems to be the same in this part of the world.... pay the sportsmen outrages amounts along with sponsorships and they are set for life having never worked for their pay just played for it

[swamprat]

>>If there was another place for Americans to move to, I'd be outta here. Its getting worse every day. <<

If you were to move to another place, you'd not be an American anymore---

Correct. Thanks to the American policy establishment, America and Americans are hated worldwide. We are no longer safe, and really haven't been since before World War 2. We just didn't know it until recently.

I also understand that if you move elsewhere, that you lose your citizenship.

[Jim Rose]

>>I also understand that if you move elsewhere, that you lose your citizenship.<<

I think only if you become a citizen of the new country --- Some countries allow dual citizenship----

[D_E_Davis]

Correct. Thanks to the American policy establishment, America and Americans are hated worldwide. We are no longer safe, and really haven't been since before World War 2. We just didn't know it until recently.

That's a very general statement, which I've found to be NOT correct in those countries which I've visited.

[Eric]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/bu...th&oref=slogin

Just another sign of our decline.
The comparison between us and the Roman Empire is becoming more apparent.
We are using slave labor in the form of illegal immigrants and spending too much time goggling at sporting events.
We make heroes of our sportsmen the same as the Romans did with its gladiators.
We are losing our ability to design and produce the simplest of articles, concentrating instead on being a service society.
We now cannot entice enough people to make our armed forces viable for all the commitments our administration would like to make.
Woe is me.

Even worse, our decline will be (and is already) more precipitous; we won't get 200-plus years of slow fade-away. I would bet that anyone under 40 today will live to see the end of the USA as the world's major economic/military power.

[TC]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/bu...th&oref=slogin

Just another sign of our decline.
The comparison between us and the Roman Empire is becoming more apparent.
We are using slave labor in the form of illegal immigrants and spending too much time goggling at sporting events.
We make heroes of our sportsmen the same as the Romans did with its gladiators.
We are losing our ability to design and produce the simplest of articles, concentrating instead on being a service society.
We now cannot entice enough people to make our armed forces viable for all the commitments our administration would like to make.
Woe is me.

Even worse, our decline will be (and is already) more precipitous; we won't get 200-plus years of slow fade-away. I would bet that anyone under 40 today will live to see the end of the USA as the world's major economic/military power.

Even if we had to introduce the draft to enlarge our military, I wonder what percentage would survive the basic training.
It is a shame, but I think you are in the right area of timing.