What went wrong?

[HardDrive]

I think people of any culture are willing to dig in their heels and work when they're hungry.

Do Americans look hungry to you?

Unless they are living under a bridge, even the poor have cars, tvs, cell phones, microwave ovens, etc. What is peoples motivation to strive? If you have low aspirations, and all of the those aspirations are met already, what is there to work for?

[wdfifteen]

What went wrong? Lots of things.

We overreached. As SJF911 said, "we have felt compelled to play world policeman at the expense of the American tax payer and their children and children's children." Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the meddling that didn't result in wars have cost us dearly in blood and treasure.

We shifted our focus. We started paying attention to poverty and inequality. Fixing those problems is not as sexy as moon shots and fast planes, and there is a large number of Americans with the "screw you, I got mine" mentality who have jammed sticks in the spokes of every attempt at change.

The price of energy skyrocketed. The Arab oil embargo put the brakes on the post-war industrial prosperity.

We lost an enemy. The collapse of the USSR left fundamentally angry Americans without a unifying international boogyman. Liberals, women, and minorities who were looking for a place at the table and the "screw you, I got mine" crowd became domestic enemies.

In the 1960s underclass Americans were given hope that opportunities for upward mobility would open up more than they did. Racism and sexism resulting in continued economic inequality remained in spite of new laws, resulting in more domestic enemies to hate.

Other countries, India in particular, put a huge emphasis on education as a way of improving their economic status while the US's historic recognition of the value of education nosedived. Competition from them took US jobs, while becoming educated was looked at as elitist by some in the US, and just too much trouble by others.

[Seahawk]

Easy.

The rise of the 24 hour news cycle and the need to fill it.

300 channels of shlock.

Glorification of guns in movies and video games.

Complete absence of standards or the willingness to understand and enforce them.

Debating the definition of "is".

The fall of education. Compare HS curriculum from the 50's to today and you will understand.

The fall of the Fourth Estate into cheer-leading politicians of their ilk.

Drugging our children when they act like, well, children.

Excuse making as an option.

Making fun of religion, except Islam.

The lack of understanding of basic economics and the terms required to understand basic economics, micro or macro.

Tribal political parties.

[jorian]

Locusts!

[speeder]

What happened to architecture?



When is the last time you saw architecture like this?

20 minutes ago?

[LakeCleElum]

Porsche-O-Phile nailed it - Well said.....

Now, getting back to this "Free Love" thing........I met a few willing soldiers in the Sexual revolution back in the day......Feel sorry for those in their 20's today. Seems they just have their phones to play with?

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

I think people of any culture are willing to dig in their heels and work when they're hungry.

Do Americans look hungry to you?

Unless they are living under a bridge, even the poor have cars, tvs, cell phones, microwave ovens, etc. What is peoples motivation to strive? If you have low aspirations, and all of the those aspirations are met already, what is there to work for?

Don't you love it when the guy on the freeway onramp with the cardboard sign stops to answer his phone!

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

[imcarthur]

A lot of symptoms are being mentioned but real cause? I think the beginning of the end started when you began to think that you were the best. Then you started to act like it & spend like it. Coming out of WW2, the rest of the world was broken & over the next 3 decades you tried to fix it – but in your own mold. An impossible task as others have discovered in the past. Of course, the Soviets were trying the same thing from their end of the stadium but they started with some severe handicaps - thankfully. Even though this tussle led to some colossal foreign policy mistakes, it directly & indirectly (NASA etc) provided a lot of fuel for domestic growth. And when you weren't fixing the world you were spending your spare change in an orgy of capitalism & consumerism. Reality started smacking you in the face in the 70s but you brushed it aside for more of that good ole economic orgying again. Except that this time you borrowed the money. And you ignored the awakening of the world, seeing it merely as an economic opportunity & not the very real threat that it has become. At a time when you should have been readjusting, you were getting fat. The last two decades have just been the start of the spiral around the drain.

Reversible? No. Survivable? Yes. But your time at the top of the heap is gone forever.

Ian

[Evans, Marv]

BE911SC - I think you understand what I'm saying. I don't begrudge veterans the right to treatment and care connected to their service. They suffered that in service to their Country and should be taken care of. As a veteran myself, I qualify but didn't suffer any service related wounds or trauma and, in my opinion, reserve that right to those who have earned it. Obviously Social Security (which I qualify for), Medicare (which I qualify for), welfare, etc. for those white folks(as you say) or otherwise are also parts of our giant welfare system. As far as "Welfare" to the poor, I personally am not against helping out people in need either, but not for a lifetime. I've said on here a couple of times, I worked with the welfare system for a number of years. I witnessed first hand the inefficiency, waste, and dependency it fostered. All these need to be redone and streamlined to efficiently do what they were intended to do. However we all know that will never happen.

[fintstone]

People are just lazy, unmotivated and lack self-discipline. They don't have to worry where their next meal will come from. Social welfare will always take care of them.

[nota]

NIXON and the nut con's in 1968 began the down hill slide
also opened trade talks with china [gee that went well]
killed the gold standard resulting in high inflation
and favored the rich over the normal people

raygun just made it all much worse

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

The last two decades have just been the start of the spiral around the drain.

Reversible? No. Survivable? Yes. But your time at the top of the heap is gone forever.

Ian

Zatcly! This is why Canada needs to take over America.... then together we will take over Mexico... we will become Canamerico... we will be unstoppable!

[DanielDudley]

Just in reading this thread, I see an America where everyone favors their own interests and views over what would work for everyone.

Baz Knows better than to post this here, yet he does anyway, and the seagulls come flocking...

It's always someone else who has to improve. As for me, well, let's just leave well enough alone...

When it comes to the addict, the dysfunctional or the obsessed, there is never a desire to change until one is driven to his knees. And even in dysfunctional relationships, the nuclear group will band together to fend off those who would intervene to improve the situation.

Well, America has become a dysfunctional social unit. Not some of it, but All of it, as a whole. We will change only when changing becomes less painful than staying the same. For many years now, we have stayed the same, in a gridlocked dysfunctional failure to move forward. This has benefited some, but I see no great calling toward greatness, but rather a crass movement toward self aggrandizement.

Will we be brought to our knees before we again hear the call to greatness, or will we find that it is a sustainable future that favors our planet and our future , perhaps though at a time when it will not be so easy to achieve ?

Well, if we wait to hit bottom, it may come in a way that many here will find hard to fathom and impossible to come to terms with. Indeed, it may be happening already.

But hey, I've got mine. SO laugh it up and keep pointing the finger at others...

[dlockhart]

Traded productivity for debt through the Financialization of our economy.
One could argue the root is 1913.
Tabby is more kind and lets it fall on LBJ going all in for guns And butter.
Certainly Nixon put a dagger in us in 1973 with the destruction of Bretton Woods.

[jyl]

Look at Apple; an American invention, wildly successful, but who benefits the most? I would say probably China

That is a common and completely incorrect belief.

The great majority of the iPhone's economic value goes to the US.

Here is the iPhone 5's bill of materials.

Groundbreaking iPhone 5s Carries $199 BOM and Manufacturing Cost, IHS Teardown Reveals - IHS Technology

Of the $750 price of the phone, $550 is profit for Apple, that pays for its employees who are overwhelmingly in the US.

$200 goes to various makers of semiconductors and other components. Almost all of those are made in semiconductor fabs in Taiwan (TSMC etc) or Korea (Samsung etc) with package/ test done in various countries including China. Roughly half of those chips are sold by US semiconductor companies (Qualcomm, Broadcom, Cerus, etc) so their profit margin (60% or so) goes to pay for their mostly-US employees. The battery, case, and a few minor chips are from China.

$7 is the packaging and the accessories in the box (AC adapter, earbuds, cable). That comes from China.

Assembly is $8. That is done in China.

So basically, about 70-75% of an iPhone's value flows to the US, about 5-10% to China, the rest to Taiwan and Korea.

The iPhone is awesome for the US. We need more products like that, not fewer.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by jyl

That is a common and completely incorrect belief.

The great majority of the iPhone's economic value goes to the US.

Here is the iPhone 5's bill of materials.

Groundbreaking iPhone 5s Carries $199 BOM and Manufacturing Cost, IHS Teardown Reveals - IHS Technology

Of the $750 price of the phone, $550 is profit for Apple, that pays for its employees who are overwhelmingly in the US.

$200 goes to various makers of semiconductors and other components. Almost all of those are made in semiconductor fabs in Taiwan (TSMC etc) or Korea (Samsung etc) with package/ test done in various countries including China. Roughly half of those chips are sold by US semiconductor companies (Qualcomm, Broadcom, Cerus, etc) so their profit margin (60% or so) goes to pay for their mostly-US employees. The battery, case, and a few minor chips are from China.

$7 is the packaging and the accessories in the box (AC adapter, earbuds, cable). That comes from China.

Assembly is $8. That is done in China.

So basically, about 70-75% of an iPhone's value flows to the US, about 5-10% to China, the rest to Taiwan and Korea.

The iPhone is awesome for the US. We need more products like that, not fewer.

Yah, I just bought more Apple stock. How's that helping those lazy bums who need to go out and get a job ?

[pavulon]

The world needs more "products" that are not intended to rendered obsolete in 5 or fewer years.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

In before this goes to PARF....

Divisive politics. Your country appears to be stalled by infighting.

And debt...

This is actually my favorite post.

We could be more like the Germans. And I mean those in the present.

[VINMAN]

Priorities...