Is America becoming a third world nation?

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Trianon

Golden Member
Jun 13, 2000
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Is America In Decline? 24 Statistics About The United States Economy That Are Almost Too Embarrassing To Admit
Unfortunately based on my pre-immigration experience, I have to state that all symptoms are there...
Does anyone really want to hear that America is in decline? For decades, most of us have been raised to believe that the United States is "number one" and that anyone who doubts that fact is a "gloom and doomer" that should just pack up and move to "Russia" or "Iraq" or some other country where things are not nearly as good. But does it do us or future generations any good to ignore the very serious signs of trouble that are erupting all around us? The truth is that it is about time to wake up and admit how much trouble we are actually in. The U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt. The entire society is absolutely drowning in debt. We are being slaughtered in the arena of world trade, and every single month tens of billions of dollars (along with large numbers of factories and jobs) leave our shores for good. Our infrastructure is failing, our kids are less educated and our incomes are going down. We have serious, serious problems. At one time, the U.S. economy was so dominant that it was not even worth talking about who was in second place. That is no longer the case in 2010. Our forefathers handed us the greatest economic machine in history and we have allowed it to fall apart right in front of our eyes. A national economic crisis of historic proportions is getting worse with each passing month, and yet most of our leaders seem to be asleep at the switch.

So is American in decline? Well, read the statistics below and decide for yourself. The reality is that when you start connecting the dots it gets really hard to deny what is going on.

Urgent action must be taken if things are going to be turned around. It is time to get our heads out of the sand. It is not guaranteed that the United States will always be the greatest economy in the world or that we will even continue to be prosperous.

For many Americans, it will be incredibly difficult to admit that our nation has become a debt addict and an economic punching bag for the rest of the world.

But if we are never willing to admit what the problems are, how are we ever going to come up with the solutions?

What you are about to read below is going to absolutely shock many of you. But hopefully it will shock you enough to get you to take action. We desperately need to change course as a nation.

The following are 24 statistics about the United States economy that are almost too embarrassing to admit....

#1 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh.

#2 The United States once had the highest proportion of young adults with post-secondary degrees in the world. Today, the U.S. has fallen to 12th.

#3 In the 2009 "prosperity index" published by the Legatum Institute, the United States was ranked as just the ninth most prosperous country in the world. That was down five places from 2008.

#4 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.

#5 The economy of India is projected to become larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2050.

#6 One prominent economist now says that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#7 According to a new study conducted by Thomson Reuters, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year.

#8 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. Approximately 75 percent of those factories employed at least 500 workers while they were still in operation.

#9 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#10 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#11 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented only 11.5 percent.

#12 The television manufacturing industry began in the United States. So how many televisions are manufactured in the United States today? According to Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder, the grand total is zero.

#13 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time that less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#14 Back in 1980, the United States imported approximately 37 percent of the oil that we use. Now we import nearly 60 percent of the oil that we use.

#15 The U.S. trade deficit is running about 40 or 50 billion dollars a month in 2010. That means that by the end of the year approximately half a trillion dollars (or more) will have left the United States for good.

#16 Between 2000 and 2009, America's trade deficit with China increased nearly 300 percent.

#17 Today, the United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that China spends on goods from the United States.

#18 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#19 American 15-year-olds do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy.

#20 Median household income in the U.S. declined from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. That was the second yearly decline in a row.

#21 The United States has the third worst poverty rate among the advanced nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

#22 Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power.

#23 U.S. government spending as a percentage of GDP is now up to approximately 36 percent.

#24 The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.

Please share these statistics with as many family members and friends as you can. It is time to get real. It is time to admit that we have some really big problems.

America is in decline and the situation is getting worse by the day. If we are not willing to admit how bad things really are, then we are never even going to have a chance to find the solutions that we need.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/...omy-that-are-almost-too-embarrassing-to-admit
 

Patranus

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2007
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If GOP gets its way, yes we will be a banana republic, where government only acts to protect a small wealthy minority while middle class is decimated and remainder of population lives in abject poverty to provide cheap labor.

Government shouldn't "act" to protect any group or business.

Sadly, government feels like it should be in the business of picking winners and losers be it the corporations or unions and the results are terrible.

EditL: You don't know what cheap labor really is. Cheap labor is hiring someone with a masters degree in India for $5.50 an hour. Cheap labor isn't hiring a high school drop out for $10 a hour because of state/federal minimum wages and then have that salary pushed to $15 a hour because of government regulations.
 

Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
2
76
ostif.org
If the Gini index continues to rise, the economy will never recover fully.

The only reason our numbers are even as good as they are is our ~449 billionaires offset the millions of poor people.

The only way to derail the freight train to obscurity is to raise taxes on the wealthy to control the deficit, and end free trade agreements with mexico, china, and india.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,414
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And not to put too fine a point on things, but America by definition can't be a Third World country. The New World was the Americas, the Old World was Europe, and the Third World was everything else the Europeans didn't care about.

first world was US aligned countries in the cold war, second world was soviet aligned countries in the cold war, and the third world was everyone else that the first and second world were fighting over. it's "us" "you" and "them."


Government shouldn't "act" to protect any group or business.

Sadly, government feels like it should be in the business of picking winners and losers be it the corporations or unions and the results are terrible.
government by its very nature picks winners and losers. it absolutely changes the social order from the state of nature.


Is America In Decline? 24 Statistics About The United States Economy That Are Almost Too Embarrassing To Admit
Unfortunately based on my pre-immigration experience, I have to state that all symptoms are there...

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/...omy-that-are-almost-too-embarrassing-to-admit
a lot of that is what you would expect moving from an industrial economy to post-industrial. or the fact that china and india each have 3x+ the population we do.

for most of the world's history the economic output of the 1st world was dwarfed by the economic output of the rest of the world. the first world then raced ahead as it became educated and industrialized before everyone else. that everyone else will catch up is to be expected.
 
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senseamp

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,786
6,188
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Government shouldn't "act" to protect any group or business.

Sadly, government feels like it should be in the business of picking winners and losers be it the corporations or unions and the results are terrible.

EditL: You don't know what cheap labor really is. Cheap labor is hiring someone with a masters degree in India for $5.50 an hour. Cheap labor isn't hiring a high school drop out for $10 a hour because of state/federal minimum wages and then have that salary pushed to $15 a hour because of government regulations.

Yeah, Republicans still have some work to do until labor is cheap enough for their corporate patrons. Patience.
 

peonyu

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2003
2,038
23
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Closest America comes to being 3rd world is Detroit, it truely is a toilet bowel that has not been flushed for a year. But even then its still a step up above real 3rd world areas.
 
Jun 26, 2007
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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/yahoocan...e_united_states_becoming_a_third_world_nation


Looks like the teabaggers are getting what they want before any even get elected. Pay no attention to all the countries we are losing to with a far less hands-off-the-economy government than the US has.

That is such utter bullsheit, the US has more hands on the economy than most other western nations with the possible exception of the UK and France, hell nations like Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have surpassed the US on the "hands off the economy" for many a years now.

The laws of trade (which is what socialism really is, regulation on the free market) are more plentiful in the US than in any other nation i'm aware of.
 
Jun 26, 2007
11,925
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Government shouldn't "act" to protect any group or business.

Sadly, government feels like it should be in the business of picking winners and losers be it the corporations or unions and the results are terrible.

EditL: You don't know what cheap labor really is. Cheap labor is hiring someone with a masters degree in India for $5.50 an hour. Cheap labor isn't hiring a high school drop out for $10 a hour because of state/federal minimum wages and then have that salary pushed to $15 a hour because of government regulations.

I think i'm going to shoot myself now, i agree with Paturanus.
 
Oct 16, 1999
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That is such utter bullsheit, the US has more hands on the economy than most other western nations with the possible exception of the UK and France, hell nations like Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have surpassed the US on the "hands off the economy" for many a years now.

The laws of trade (which is what socialism really is, regulation on the free market) are more plentiful in the US than in any other nation i'm aware of.

Aware yourself:
http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking.aspx
 
Jun 26, 2007
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Unfortunantly this doesn't include regulations on import and export which makes it pointless and completely useless.

And unfortunantly i can't use any search engine but i do believe there is a site on world trade regulations.

I think someone has in their sig "26000 page long regulation on the sale of cabbage in the US" which should clue you in on that.
 

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
28,561
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Unfortunantly this doesn't include regulations on import and export which makes it pointless and completely useless.

And unfortunantly i can't use any search engine but i do believe there is a site on world trade regulations.

I think someone has in their sig "26000 page long regulation on the sale of cabbage in the US" which should clue you in on that.

1,000,000,000 percent wrong!
The US has free trade agreements with Mexico and Canada. Our trade with Europe is just as "free" as their trade with us. We are about to have a free trade agreement with South America that will let their "underveloped countries" get exceptions for thousands of industries so they can have an unfair advantage over our industries. Our free trade with China extends to citizens of the U.S. paying to test imported products from China to make sure they won't kill us?

I mean, c'mon, its the US allowing other countries to walk all over us with free trade that they routinely manipulate 1,000,000,000 times more than we do. China alone manipulates its currency, provides government support and loans for its industries, builds factories to producers specs and leases them to the manufactures for pennies, keeps its social safety net low so workers won't spend money, dictates by government decree the wages in factories, etc, etc, etc. And if you are a worker in China and you just mention maybe putting lead on childrens toys is not a good idea you will be lucky to only go to jail and not get shot.

The worlds number on exporter after China is Germany. And they have a billion page regulation on cabbage, I'm sure.
 
Oct 30, 2004
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Here's a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury's take on it.

September Jobs Report Reveals America's Emerging Third World Economy

For a number of years I reported on the monthly nonfarm payroll jobs data. The data did not support the praises economists were singing to the "New Economy." The "New Economy" consisted, allegedly, of financial services, innovation, and high-tech services.

This economy was taking the place of the old "dirty fingernail" economy of industry and manufacturing. Education would retrain the workforce, and we would move on to a higher level of prosperity.


Time after time I reported that there was no sign of the "New Economy" jobs, but that the old economy jobs were disappearing. The only net new jobs were in lowly paid domestic services such as waitresses and bartenders, retail clerks, health care and social assistance (mainly ambulatory health care services), and, before the bubble burst, construction.


The facts, issued monthly by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, had no impact on the "New Economy" propaganda. Economists continued to wax eloquently about how globalism was a boon for our future.


The millions of unemployed today are blamed on the popped real estate bubble and the subprime derivative financial crisis. However, the US economy has been losing jobs for a decade. As manufacturing, information technology, software engineering, research, development, and tradable professional services have been moved offshore, the American middle class has shriveled. The ladders of upward mobility that made American an "opportunity society" have been dismantled.
 

epidemis

Senior member
Jun 6, 2007
796
0
0
If GOP gets its way, yes we will be a banana republic, where government only acts to protect a small wealthy minority while middle class is decimated and remainder of population lives in abject poverty to provide cheap labor.

GOP wants to make everyone rich.

Demo(lishers) want to make everyone poor
 
Jun 26, 2007
11,925
2
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1,000,000,000 percent wrong!
The US has free trade agreements with Mexico and Canada. Our trade with Europe is just as "free" as their trade with us. We are about to have a free trade agreement with South America that will let their "underveloped countries" get exceptions for thousands of industries so they can have an unfair advantage over our industries. Our free trade with China extends to citizens of the U.S. paying to test imported products from China to make sure they won't kill us?

I mean, c'mon, its the US allowing other countries to walk all over us with free trade that they routinely manipulate 1,000,000,000 times more than we do. China alone manipulates its currency, provides government support and loans for its industries, builds factories to producers specs and leases them to the manufactures for pennies, keeps its social safety net low so workers won't spend money, dictates by government decree the wages in factories, etc, etc, etc. And if you are a worker in China and you just mention maybe putting lead on childrens toys is not a good idea you will be lucky to only go to jail and not get shot.

The worlds number on exporter after China is Germany. And they have a billion page regulation on cabbage, I'm sure.

LOL, well if you want to think so, i guess you can delude yourself as much as you want.

In reality, the trade restrictions that are NAFTA are very real, the regulations on EU imports are nothing like what we have for our imports which is NOTHING.

But you can live in your fantasy world all you like. If that helps you, ok.
 

blackangst1

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
22,914
2,359
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No, but Americans ARE becoming a bunch of whiney brats who scream that we're on the edge of collapse because our economy is ONLY better than the typical third world economy by a multiple of 20 instead of 22 like it once was.

It reminds me of what people used to say about 49ers fans back in the Joe Montana era. They were so used to winning every game, they lost one, or only won it by 3 points instead of 30 and they're crying like babies.

Yup, that's America. Economic apocalypse? Not so much. Cultural apocalypse? Hmm, maybe so.

- wolf

Yep