Another cold war needed?!?!

[Fishteacher73]

The problem is not only international economic competition. Raising tarriffs would essentially only raise the cost of goods here in the states. We would not have a substantial jump in average income because we could only really raise the tarrifs to make imported goods more expensive than domestic (With US labor costs the price would go up quite a bit) and many foriegn companies that are major employeers here in the states (Honda, Toyota, etc.) would simply remove its factories and again drive down the average income. We could no longer afford much and would start domino affect inflation as the cost of good increased with each phase of production from raw materials to labor to transport would all cost more without any proffit gain to add into wages. Things would cost more and we would make less. Starting to sound a bit like pre-WWII Germany?

[kaelcarp]

If the US falls, in my opinion, it will mostly be from within, like many empires of the past. It's in mid-life now and appears to have a long way to go before a fall, but it will likely come in time.

 

As far as a cold war goes, it did provide a solid enemy for the US, one capable of destroying the world several times over as easily as the US was, which had good and bad effects. For one, it justified a larger weapons and military program. Nowadays, the US basically has to go looking for reasons to justify these things (and it finds them pretty easily). It focused the nation on a definite single other enemy, whereas now political divisions within the country have citizens pointing their fingers more at each other (red vs. blue). It also caused mass poverty in Russia and fear and anxiety among Americans that was somewhat unfounded.

[pgrmdave]

I think that raising the tariffs would have the opposite effect. Foreign made goods would be more expensive, so it would benefit companies to have manufacturing in the United States. The money that we spent would be on goods that were American made, so that money would only go to other Americans, who would then spend it. The problem with comparing us to Germany is that we have the ability to produce almost everything that we need. We have oil, we have forests, we have minerals. The effect of a raised tariff would be to stop American's from spending so much that goes to other nations, and keep the money here. This would keep American economy stronger than our competitors.

[Buffy]

The problem with tarriffs is that other countries retaliate, meaning less of what we make is purchased abroad. No matter how high our tarriffs, people here will still buy stuff from abroad, and if other countries retaliate, we have the same balance of trade problem. Now that we have GATT, we've mostly all agreed not to put up tarriffs to benefit our local economies and there's an international organization to deal with disputes. Its not perfect, but its better than the old days of escalating import taxes.

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[Fishteacher73]

Being a teacher, I see the state of our educational system. We are quickly producing predominantly two classes of students. As an 8th grade math teacher I have MANY (Shooting from the hip guess at 30%) of my students that do not know their times tables and say they do not know how to devide. On the other end of the spectrum you have students that are already learning C+, etc. There is very little in between these poles. This coupled with the increasing dichotomy developing in terms of economic brackets (1 % of the population with 90% of the nation's wealth) will quickly (again a guestimate) will produce a hugly polar population that is reminiscent of the end of the tzarist (csarist,czarist, pick your spelling...) reign in russia which brought about the Bolshevic revolution. At this rate internal class war seems to be inevitable.

 

Just as Kaelcarp suggested, the downfall will be internal, fueled by the external forces helping drive the US economy down.

[pgrmdave]

I think that our national identity is still too strong for an internal downfall. I don't know what it was like across the nation, but 9/11 brought togeather everybody in my area. I got the idea that it was a national feeling, that we live, and die, and survive only as a nation. So long as this idea persists, internal squabbles will only go as far as it can without damaging the United States' place in the world. So long as people are, in the long run, looking out for the good of the nation, we cannot be displaced internally.

[Fishteacher73]

I think the November elections have shown that was a short lived unity. And even that "unity" was fueled by xenophibic ideals and the sudden stigmatization of anyone that was even thought of as middle eastern appearance. Americans have a short term memory...you hardly hear a word about the tsunami, or Afganistan and barely anything about the Iraqi war. 9/11 has drifted into the junk drawer of American history. Occasionally pulled out and dusted off to justfy the errosion of our Constitutional rights or to bolster someones image("They helped do such and such on 9/11" <-- Not to dismiss their deeds, but it is usually under the guise of self promotion that this is brought up in the public realm).

[kaelcarp]

I think that our national identity is still too strong for an internal downfall. I don't know what it was like across the nation, but 9/11 brought togeather everybody in my area. I got the idea that it was a national feeling, that we live, and die, and survive only as a nation. So long as this idea persists, internal squabbles will only go as far as it can without damaging the United States' place in the world. So long as people are, in the long run, looking out for the good of the nation, we cannot be displaced internally.

Actually, nationalism may bring about the downfall more quickly. Nationalism hands over more power to the government rather than its citizens, which can escalate the downfall. It might seem contradictory, but a central government that tries to take control of too much of a country as diverse as the United States is likely to deepen resentment of citizens for one another. Just look at the in-fighting we have today. It's getting worse.