16-09-2002 03:07									#91
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quote: But it's a whole other ball game to say, "Hey, you should raise your own taxes and create a shitty government run health care system like the UK!"

But you Americans are telling this sort of thing constantly to most developping countries. You usually do it via the IMF and the World Bank, institutions chiefly staffed and controlled (politically and economically) by the Americans. You also do it by your propaganda apparatus. If these do not work, the CIA takes over. If that doesn't work either, the Army goes in and finishes the job.

quote: Here's a thought: If your methods are so good, why can we have such a powerhouse economy while still spending hundreds of billions of dollars on defense?

Because military spending is public spending which is known to sustain an economy to a higher pace than it would normally have. The wars you fight have then a twofold purpose: to utilise the weapons production and to coerce other countries into accepting unfair trade and natural exploitation deals, which brings you the increased income that makes your economy such a powerhouse. As the primary imperialist power on the planet, your function is to gather your profits from around the world and reinvest them around the world, perpetuating thus the imperialistic system.

	16-09-2002 03:25									#92
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History remember those who act against it.

America will fall eventualy, they're fighting a losing battle, soon they'll have so meny terrorist networks against them they'll have 911 style insidents happening at least every week. Then sombody will get a nuke, they'll sit it someplace next to the white house and when bush is there, or whoever runs the country they'll set it off.

	16-09-2002 03:26									#93
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quote: Originally posted by axi Another USA vs the world thread? Why oh why? Couldn't ming have closed it down before it got serious?

The fact that there is "some" serious discussion here is the only reason why it's still open. But we have to at least allow one USA vs the world thread open... That way, you know which thread to avoid... unless you want a good chuckle.

	16-09-2002 03:28									#94
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oh, and by the way, only really weak minded nations have a strong propoganda engin run by the government, these being:
China, N. Korea, and America. The only time its not weak minded to have a propoganda engin is if sombodys dropping pamphlets in your nations.

	16-09-2002 03:38									#95
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The funny thing is that we are not actually engaging ourselves in any America-bashing right now. There isn't even one anti_Iraq_invasion or a global_warming_is_caused_by_American_SUVs thread in page 1. Perhaps this is ranting in anticipation of future threads (f.e. once the Iraq war begins).

	16-09-2002 04:13									#96
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quote: Originally posted by axi The funny thing is that we are not actually engaging ourselves in any America-bashing right now. There isn't even one anti_Iraq_invasion or a global_warming_is_caused_by_American_SUVs thread in page 1. Perhaps this is ranting in anticipation of future threads (f.e. once the Iraq war begins).

You sometimes need to look past the first page...

And nahhh... this is probably just revenge for past threads

But please... keep the seroius discussion going... it sure is better than the normal name calling and knee jerk reactionaries...

	16-09-2002 04:35									#97
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But what do you think about the wolves?

	16-09-2002 05:22									#98
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Gotta disagree with Axi re: the IMF.

Yep...it's certainly true that we tell nations we lend money to exactly (and I do mean *exaxtly*) what to do with the money and how to structure their economic policies, and there are a number of really good reasons for this:

1) It's our money. We're loaning it to them to get them back on their feet.

2) They clearly don't know how to run an economy, else they would not be in dire enough straits to need IMF help.

3) We'd like to get our money back.

4) We know our economic policies work. How do we know this? Cos we have the biggest, most robust economy out there. Like the US of A or hate the US of A, the one thing even our most bitter detractors can't say is that the Americans don't know how to use capital and make it grow faster than kudzu.

-=Vel=-

	16-09-2002 12:34									#99
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Lefty: That article is not bad but it apart from overdoing the power gap, it misses one crucial point:

Europe is militarily weak (more precisely, in the power projecting category) by choice. As America was in 1860, 1914, 1939. So he has it the wrong way round:

"Europe's military weakness has produced a perfectly understandable aversion to the exercise of military power."

No. The aversion to the use of military power has produced relative weakness.

btw, I only read the first half of the article as there seemed to come nothing new after the first 10 %.

	16-09-2002 12:50									#100
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Yeesh! I think Ben Franklin would take a cane to all of the strutting peacocks cluttering his country were he still alive today... I don't foresee a prosperous future for America if it continues to be full of self-congratulatory primadonnas gloating about something they had no part in creating. If Americans could ever stop being a pack of conceited snobs, the rest of the world might actually like them. Hey, believe it or not, Europe used to actually like us a hundred years ago! And that was even after our industrial capacity outranked theirs... ought to tell you all something about modesty, eh?

	16-09-2002 13:00									#101
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That's a point.