More Irritants...

Every time I read about the current state of the world on the Internet I come away with a bad taste in my mouth. I keep being lured to sites and forums that contain nothing but half truths, targeted propaganda, naive comments, biased analysis, and outright lies. This pattern emerges on all types of content whether it be political, technological, or just current world events. Every time I drop into a discussion forum and find things which irritate me I promise myself I will just ignore these sites in the future. But it's like driving by a traffic accident, you just can't stop yourself from slowing down to take a look as you pass by and thus I find myself returning to these sites over and over. Some of the more recent irritants have been:

• According to a host of online pundits the US is in rapid decline because of a variety of serious problems and this decline is being compared to the fall of Rome Empire. According to these pundits the US will be a 3rd world country by this time next year. At the height of Roman power they ruled over 25% of the world population while the US is populated by only 5% of the world population. While the US and the Roman Empire do have some superficial simularities there are also some big differences.

• The Romans used coordinated military power to expand the size of their empire and in the process was responsible for spreading a common language, basic laws, establishing and protecting of trade routes, and exposed various cultures to one another throughout the empire. Basically forceful converting barbarian tribes into a more ordered society. The US actions are somewhat similiar and have resulted in establishing English as the international language of buisness and the US has also tried spread the benefits of modern civilation to undeveloped countries with the expectation of spreading their influence and power.
• Both the US and Roman empire were populated by a wide variety and mixture of different cultures and ethnic characteristics.
• The biggest difference between the Roman Empire and the US is that the Romans established direct governerships over the territories they conquered. The British Empire did the same thing. And while the US might wield a lot of influence they have never tried to impose a permanent formal governership on the countries they have toppled using military force. For example, the US returned self government to West Germany,Japan, Phillipines, Kuwait, and Iraq.
• Both the Romans and the US used their military to create great technological advances. The pressure cooker of war has always increased the pace of technology growth. Heck, the Internet started off as a DARPA project.
• Both the Roman Empire and the US consist of distinct social and economic classes. The most important one being the "middle class". I believe that the size of the middle class can be used to determine the health of a society.
• The Romans were very aware of the danger the organized religions could have on their society and went through great pains to limit any religious ideas entering into  their governing model. Christians were especially persecuted. The US leaders are also aware of the danger of organized religion but they actively try and insert it whenever they can get away with it. 

• I don't believe that the US has ever been an empire such as the old Roman or English empires. The times are different and things do not operate the same way they did 1000 years ago. There were different moral and value systems that differ greatly from what we have today. The Romans and English did not have to contend with the bane of modern civiliation known as "Political Correctness".

• Over the past couple of years I think people have been greatly over estimating the power and influence of the US. People need someone to blame for all their problems and an all powerful and mighty US makes a good scapegoat. Every country in the world looks to improve their own status first before trying to help anyone else and the US is not alone in this practice.

• I don't see much evidence today that leads me to believe the US is going through unusually difficult times. If you look back over time to the beginning of the country there has always been something happening that could be considered a crisis but some how the US has soldiered on. This is just a list of some of the situations that the US has found itself in over the years.
• The country was born through the use of military force. Against the British and Native Americans (1700-1800's)
• Civil War
• WW 1 (10's)
• Great Depression (20's)
• WW 2 (40's)
• Korean War (50's)
• Overt Racism, Civil Rights Marches and Militant Activism (50's/60's/70's)
• Cold War (50's/60's/70's)
• Vietnam War (60's/70's)
• OPEC Embargo (70's)
• Iranian Hostage Crisis (80's)
• Japan was supposed to dominate the World Economy and cause unemployment in the US (80's)
• Junk Bond Crash (80's)
• First Iraq War (90's)
• 9/11  (90's)
• Second Iraq War (90's/00's)
• Afghanistan War (90's/00's)
• Raising and Falling Economic and Unemployment cycles (Always)

• I have seen an awful lot of people claiming that the US is owned by China. These people evidently do not grasp the basic fundamentals of government bonds and securities trading. When China "buys" our debt they are basically investing money in the US with the expectation of getting a return (interest payments) on their investments. How many corporations have gone belly up and screwed their investors? If we don't make good on the bonds and securities we offer the buyers (ie. China) would be out of a lot of money and the worst thing that would happen to the US is that our credit score gets downgraded and we have to pay higher interest rates on any future bond issues.  I know this is a very simplistic explanation but it does cover the basics so don't worry about China serving any dunning notices. The US and Chinese economies are dependant on one another. China's dependance of the US markets is a little more serious than the US dependance on the Chinese markets. If push becomes shove China does not supply anything to the US that the US could not produce internally or obtain from other sources. The same goes for China however the loss of the US export market income would wipe out a good portion of their economy.  China's primary advantage in the world economy is their low labor cost combined with unabashed wholesale theft of intellectual property from the West. Industrial espionage is a lot cheaper than research and development.

• On a slightly different subject I am sick and tired of people calling Gaza a concentration camp. The pro-palestinians use this description to draw attention and outrage but every time they do this they are trivializing the real concentration camps that exisited in WWII. Those concentration camps were engineered for the express purpose of killing and disposing of large numbers of human beings. The cattle cars, gas chambers, and disposal ovens were explicitly German engineered for this one purpose. There is nothing remotely the same in Gaza and trying to make that comparsion erases the true horrors of what a real concentration camp is. This is one reason I have a hard time supporting any pro-Palestinian causes. Until they admit that they are nothing but a tool of the surrounding Arab countries used to irritate and harass Israel non-stop. Since they could not defeat Israel militarily the only alternative they have left is a PR war using the people called  Palestinians. The Arabs have still not got over the shame of getting their asses kicked when they attacked Israel in '48, '67, and '73.