America is Doomed?

Hugo Drax

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2011
5,647
47
91
Someone sent me this list, It is interesting. Will look at some of the details for fact checking.

Is America doomed like the Ottoman empire, The Spanish empire, Soviet Union etc..??


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Spanish empire
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#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.

#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.

#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.

#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
 
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Anarchist420

Diamond Member
Feb 13, 2010
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Well, that's what happens when the government gets too big.

I'm 100% sure that the U.S. Federal Republic is going to collapse within the next decade if Dr. Paul doesn't become president. Once taxes go up, most (but not all) of the rich people will leave and there will probably be a true civil war.

Government does not work.
 

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
68
86
Well, that's what happens when the government gets too big.

I'm 100% sure that the U.S. Federal Republic is going to collapse within the next decade if Dr. Paul doesn't become president. Once taxes go up, most (but not all) of the rich people will leave and there will probably be a true civil war.

Government does not work.

How much do you want to bet?

Where, exactly, will the "rich" people go? Where were they when the top marginal rate was 90%? Canada?

It's easy to doomsday when times are a bit tough. There were plenty of them during the Great Depression. It's also easy to make silly correlations without considering any other factors. Did Spain have the world's largest IP (I know Anarchist will love that) portfolio? World's largest base of wealth? World's strongest economy? World's largest military? World's largest tech industry?

What did Spain really have then that would make it even slightly comparable to the US now?

There's nothing wrong with a big government, provided it is done with some modicum of fiscal responsibility (spending AND taxing).
 
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Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
The US is doomed because we continue to ship our factories overseas.

When the time comes, we will have no factories to manufacturer weapons of war.
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,948
126
The US is doomed because we continue to ship our factories overseas.

When the time comes, we will have no factories to manufacturer weapons of war.

eh?

Thats about the only industry we still have in this country. Its a horrible industry to rely on because we need to keep it running by going to war every couple decades.
 

Doppel

Lifer
Feb 5, 2011
13,306
3
0
America's questionable future is because of continual deficit spending condoned by politicians and the ignorant masses that continue to vote them into power.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,976
141
106
all organized societies eventually fail. At some point failure takes on a life and velocity of it's own and becomes unstoppable. Most US states would be better off returning to territory status and reclaim sovereignty lost to federalism.
 
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Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
eh?

Thats about the only industry we still have in this country. Its a horrible industry to rely on because we need to keep it running by going to war every couple decades.

You must be thinking about the automotive industry. the answer is no, that is not what I was referring to.

Do you realize that the US only has a couple of large shipyards? We have lots of smaller shipyards that work on things like tugboats. But we have very few large shipyards left. The majority of the shipyards that built ships in the 1940s have been dismantled.

A good bit of our welding supplies are made in china. If we can not even make a welding machine in the USA, how are we supposed to build planes, ships and tanks?
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,948
126
You must be thinking about the automotive industry. the answer is no, that is not what I was referring to.

Do you realize that the US only has a couple of large shipyards? We have lots of smaller shipyards that work on things like tugboats. But we have very few large shipyards left. The majority of the shipyards that built ships in the 1940s have been dismantled.

A good bit of our welding supplies are made in china. If we can not even make a welding machine in the USA, how are we supposed to build planes, ships and tanks?

Why do we need ships?

Are you a expert on what items of industry the military needs?
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
88,277
55,862
136
A lot of that list is repetitive or bizarrely narrow. You really only need 1 note, that America suffered a severe recession due to an epic financial crisis that we are still recovering from.
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
LOL.

Ok whatever dude

Troll, troll, troll your boat, gently down the stream.

If you want to take out a nations ability to wage war, destroy its manufacturing base. This means everything from motors to wheel bearings.

With the US, nobody has to worry about destroying our manufacturing base, because we have already given it to china.
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,948
126
Troll, troll, troll your boat, gently down the stream.

If you want to take out a nations ability to wage war, destroy its manufacturing base. This means everything from wheel bearings to motors.

With the US, nobody has to worry about destroying our manufacturing base, because we have already given it to china.

Im not disagreeing with that. I just dont think you are in a position to say we need more ships. You are a welder. This doesnt give you any insight into what weapons of war we need in the future.
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
You are a welder. This doesnt give you any insight into what weapons of war we need in the future.

You are right, I am not talking about "what" weapons we need. I am referring to our ability retool our factories for war, like what happened during world war II.

Either the factories have been demolished and moved overseas, or our tools are made in china. Either way its a loose, loose situation.
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,948
126
You are right, I am not talking about "what" weapons we need. I am referring to our ability retool our factories for war, like what happened during world war II.

Either the factories have been demolished and moved overseas, or our tools are made in china. Either way its a loose, loose situation.

but we dont wage war like that anymore. I find it idiotic that we maintain such a large military as it is and here you are saying its not enough bcause there could be ww3?

Do you have any idea the drain on our economy by the military industrial complex?

Its retarded and when I see small government conservatives say we need something like mass factories all over the country up and running non stop in case there is ww3 I can only ask what planet are you really from?
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
but we dont wage war like that anymore. I find it idiotic that we maintain such a large military as it is and here you are saying its not enough bcause there could be ww3?

Do you have any idea the drain on our economy by the military industrial complex?

Once again, I am not referring to maintaining a military.

In times of war, a machine shop could be utilized to build parts for tanks, planes, trucks,,, instead of flanges for industrial needs.

Between 1995 and 1999 I worked in a general welding shop were we built all kinds of stuff. Most parts we built were for the local chemical plants. We could have easily built parts for steel mills, ship yards, parts from trucks, parts for planes,,, and so on.

Just because we do not wage large scale wars anymore, does not mean we will never do so again.

Another shop I worked at from 2003 - 2004 built radiators for chemical plants and oil refineries. We could have retooled to build all kinds of stuff. But its difficult to retool when the tools are made by your enemies. The shop I worked at between 2003 - 2004 had a nice sized machine shop, which could have made spindles for trucks, then the welding shop welded the spindles onto the axles,,,.
 
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JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,948
126
Once again, I am not referring to maintaining a military.

In times of war, a machine shop could be utilized to build parts for tanks, planes, trucks,,, instead of flanges for industrial needs.

Between 1995 and 1999 I worked in a general welding shop were we built all kinds of stuff. Most parts we built were for the local chemical plants. We could have easily built parts for steel mills, ship yards, parts from trucks, parts for planes,,, and so on.

Just because we do not wage large scale wars anymore, does not mean we will never do so again.

Another shop I worked at from 2003 - 2004 built radiators for chemical plants and oil refineries. We could have retooled to build all kinds of stuff. But its difficult to retool when the tools are made by your enemies. The shop I worked at between 2003 - 2004 had a nice sized machine shop, which could have made spindles for trucks, then the welding shop welded the spindles onto the axles,,,.

ok please bump this thread with a i told you so if this ever happens ok?
 

KlokWyze

Diamond Member
Sep 7, 2006
4,451
9
81
www.dogsonacid.com
Hugo Trax posts up a wall of text with a bunch of negative information and never comes back. Dumb post. You could make up a post like this for any country. I mean, the British Empire certainly "fell", but the country is hardly in poverty, relatively speaking.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,268
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It's so sad that there aren't any Turks, Russians or Spanish people anymore. It was a tragedy when they all went extinct.
 

LegendKiller

Lifer
Mar 5, 2001
18,256
68
86
It's so sad that there aren't any Turks, Russians or Spanish people anymore. It was a tragedy when they all went extinct.

Nor French, English, German, Japanese...etc.

In fact, when all empires fall, the entire country goes down into chaos and never recovers. Ever.
 

woolfe9999

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2005
7,153
0
0
A lot of that list is repetitive or bizarrely narrow. You really only need 1 note, that America suffered a severe recession due to an epic financial crisis that we are still recovering from.

But then the "list" wouldn't sound so impressive. It's obviously not an objective assessment. It's constructed as an advocacy piece with the goal in mind of convincing people that we are doomed. These kinds of things are littered throughout the internet these days. One has to wonder what the agenda is. The MSM is in on the act as well. They love to publish articles, almost daily, with the most dire economic predictions imaginable. Some of it is sensationalism I suppose. For others, maybe obsessing about the worst case scenario eases their anxiety. Either way, it's constant bombardment with biased cynicism. I've gotten to where I just shut if off. It's damaging the economy all on its own.
 

piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
60
91
We cant protect our southern border, but it is ok to protect afghanistan and Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Isreal, Germany, South America, Australia, and even Libya.

There is no money left for US Citizens, and we have to send money to the UN?

America is not an Empire!!!