∞The Flow Of Money∞

Today, I read something that should be considered highly disturbing and a real wake up call for American citizens, especially those of you who don't pay attention to what the rest of the planet thinks.

According to the news, a very extensive poll was just completed that assessed the performance of President Obama, what his standing is in the world and how the world views America. The Pew Center poll showed some of the same numbers that we are seeing nationally, with Obama's numbers slipping faster than an oil slick lapping up on a Florida beach.

Are these numbers particularly distressing? Probably not when you factor in the high expectations placed upon him when he took over from Bush.  Of course, if Donald Duck had been elected after Goofy, his expectations would have been dramatically high as well.

The numbers that are the most disturbing in the poll concerned the question about who is the world's leading economic power, and guess what, we weren't it.  The People's Republic of China is now perceived as the economic leader of our world.  What the heck is going on here?

While we Americans have stood by and let the Republicans bless our corporations with wonderful tax breaks and magical accounting tricks (such as claiming all their expenses here in the US but all their profits overseas), while we Americans have stood by and watched the dismantling of our industrial base with all those jobs being sent overseas, while we Americans stood by and allowed our wage standards to take a back seat to corporate greed, something huge happened.

We went cheap on everything. We decided collectively that we wouldn't pay an extra thirty cents for a product made in the USA if we could save that thirty cents buying it from China.  Well, we have succeeded in saving money, and now China has all of the savings we thought we were getting.

China's cash reserves are estimated to be around $2 trillion, or about 1/7 of our entire monetary supply.  WOW! What are we going to do now? I think I know...

We are going to keep doing what we always do-nothing.  Well, maybe nothing is a bit too direct.  We are going to be doing something: arguing about gay marriage, bitching about the "day after pill" for sluts who deserve to end up pregnant, sniveling because the Congress had given the banks hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare, then voting the same bastards back into the race for the mid-terms, while simultaneously turning our backs on the formerly working Americans who need unemployment insurance to pay the rent in this the worst downturn since 1930.

Of course, the government isn't worried about this situation either.  Congress continues to authorize the war in Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq from one budget line while the CIA pays warlords in both countries to stir up the shit so our leaders can justify the billions of dollars a month being spent for us to stay there (NY Times expose June 2010).

It seems to be very clear that American's are no longer interested in being the leaders of men in our world.  It is very clear that we are no longer interested in being the trailblazers that this country has been famous for over the last two hundred years as we allowed our industry to collapse, our space program to expire, our money to move out of our control, our education and health care costs to spiral out of control while our wages have tanked and for what?  What have we gained?

It's a dark day in America when we collectively no longer care what our position is on this planet.  I'm sure that the Roman's could never imagine the day would come when the Goth's would arrive at their doorstep as the empire collapsed.  I'm sure that the British couldn't imagine that the sun could set on their empire one day.

What happens when people perceive you as weak and vulnerable?  I'll let you know when the Chinese peacekeepers are pulling out of Los Angeles and redeploying to San Antonio to quell the new Alamo riots.

What really boggles my mind is how this country has squandered its opportunity to be something so much more, the chance to bring all mankind forward economically, morally and politically by using our powers for the greater good rather than for the enrichment of the few at the top of the economic heap.

Now, fifth graders who are thinking about becoming engineers are taking Chinese language classes, planning ahead for the day when they need to go to China to work (Comedy Central June 2010).

I guess all good things come to an end...and we are heading there faster than any society in human history...