How do you rate the state of the union in the U.S.?

[88keys]

I'd say that it is in a worse state than it was under Bush in almost every measurable way.


I am however not giving Bush a pass. He most certainly got the ball rolling on this.


Either way we are most certainly descending into a fascist totalitarian state under Obama.

 

[Zebo]

Terrible compared to past and other first world countries. homelessness, crime, debt, GINI Coef, education, HC and any other metric puts us borderline third world.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

Tying the minimum wage to the cost of living is a wonderful way to illustrate the cost of government spending, debt and inflationary federal reserve policies. On top of ensuring that businesses always have increasing costs which would always in turn increase the cost of living and force these wages to climber higher and higher so you end up with a rat race of cost of living chasing increasing wages, etc in a inflationary manner.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Terrible compared to past and other first world countries. homelessness, crime, debt, education, HC and any other metric puts us borderline third world.

:biggrin:

 

[DesiPower]

didn't watch, dont give a flying fuck about these narcissistic politicians, interest of the common people is the last thing on the fuckin mind, screw them all... I wish they would just shut the fuck up and free up airtime, noone gives a damn about their fuckin lies.

 

[Abraxas]

Relative to what? We still have crumbling infrastructure, poor schools, poor healthcare, high poverty, etc. compared to most of the rest of the first world. On the other hand we are relatively free, relatively wealthy, relatively comfortable compared to the rest of the world and we are a good deal better off than we were when Bush left office.

Overall, I'd rate it a "meh".

 

[DucatiMonster696]

None of that is true. Gas is at similar levels to bush times and inflation is at some of the lowest levels in US history.

Gas prices are being held in check partly due to the slumping US and world economy.

 

[TalonStrike]

Terrible compared to past and other first world countries. homelessness, crime, debt, GINI Coef, education, HC and any other metric puts us borderline third world.

Name one country that is better off than the U.S.

 

[Abraxas]

Name one country that is better off than the U.S.

Norway.

 

[Zebo]

Name one country that is better off than the U.S.

All G7s for sure in almost all matrices.

I should say Chile too which I just got back from on our South American Cruise. No filthy dirty cities like USA with homeless everyplace.

 

[TalonStrike]

All G7s for sure in almost all matrices.

I should say Chile too which I just got back from on our South American Cruise. No filthy dirty cities like USA with homeless everyplace.

So that would be UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan.

How can Japan be doing better? They were hit with a tsunami/earthquake/nuclear meltdown...

 

[TalonStrike]

If you guys think that these other countries are better off, then why not move to the other countries?

 

[Abraxas]

If you guys think that these other countries are better off, then why not move to the other countries?

If I spoke Norwegian and lacked the obligations I hold at home, I would in a heartbeat.

 

[Subyman]

All I heard was a bunch of stuff that you couldn't possibly disagree with without any details at all. Par for the course.

 

[Smoove910]

meh, I went to the gym during the State of the Union. That way at least I can feel good about myself.

 

[Zebo]

If you guys think that these other countries are better off, then why not move to the other countries?

Because I have money. Good place if you got it. You can insulate yourself from the filth, bad schools, bad healthcare. Just like in Mexico. I live in neighborhood with acres per lot that has armed security to keep riff raff out.

 

[cubby1223]

Tying the minimum wage to the cost of living is a wonderful way to illustrate the cost of government spending, debt and inflationary federal reserve policies. On top of ensuring that businesses always have increasing costs which would always in turn increase the cost of living and force these wages to climber higher and higher so you end up with a rat race of cost of living chasing increasing wages, etc in a inflationary manner.

Quiet!

Obama is shoring up a voting block.

The government most assuredly can eliminate poverty and suffering, if only we didn't have the obstructionist party and their selfish greedy "principles".

 

[randomrogue]

Bush will rank as one of the 5 worst Presidents in History. Obama will rank pretty low too. The problem we have is that Bush and Congress fucked everything up and Obama and Congress hasn't fixed anything.

Looking at the numbers the USA is in terrible shape.

 

[randomrogue]

If you guys think that these other countries are better off, then why not move to the other countries?

I did.

 

[bigrash]

I thought it was pretty good

 

[PokerGuy]

Combine a general public that is largely too dumb to understand most issues with leadership bent on screwing up the country with a leftist agenda and a leftist media, and the prognosis is very poor. The number of people who believe in personal individual responsibility and accountability is getting smaller, while the number of people who want society and government to do everything for them is getting bigger by the day. We're screwed.

 

[fskimospy]

Gas prices are being held in check partly due to the slumping US and world economy.

Regardless of the reason (and that reason is quite debatable), what he said was false.

 

[boomerang]

Combine a general public that is largely too dumb to understand most issues with leadership bent on screwing up the country with a leftist agenda and a leftist media, and the prognosis is very poor. The number of people who believe in personal individual responsibility and accountability is getting smaller, while the number of people who want society and government to do everything for them is getting bigger by the day. We're screwed.

Bah, just tax the evil rich and all will be well. It's worked before. Oh wait...

 

[zsdersw]

Combine a general public that is largely too dumb to understand most issues with leadership bent on screwing up the country with a leftist agenda and a leftist media, and the prognosis is very poor. The number of people who believe in personal individual responsibility and accountability is getting smaller, while the number of people who want society and government to do everything for them is getting bigger by the day. We're screwed.

You would've been 100% right had you not included the parts in bold. Political agendas and media are a few drops of water compared to the tsunami of people who want society and government to do everything for them. It wouldn't matter one bit if it was a leftist or a right-wing agenda or media... when people want society and government to do everything for them, all hope is lost.

 

[nehalem256]

Bush will rank as one of the 5 worst Presidents in History. Obama will rank pretty low too. The problem we have is that Bush and Congress fucked everything up and Obama and Congress hasn't fixed anything.

Looking at the numbers the USA is in terrible shape.

I think the bolded is untrue. The real problem predates Bush. Namely Outsourcing and the consequent trade deficit.

Also remember that Bush was handed a collapsing Internet bubble, and a housing bubble that began(housing prices were at their highest level in history to that point when Bush took office) before he took office.

It seems rather simplistic to blame everything on Bush.