The Decline of America

[varun]

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentaries/commentary_text.php4?id=1527&lang=1&m=series

by Jeffrey D. Sachs

The first anniversary of the war in Iraq has arrived, and America's reputation continues to sink. One year ago, the US tried to bully the world into supporting an unprovoked war, claiming that anybody who didn't believe in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was either a fool or an accomplice of terrorists. Now we know that the US government and its few allies were themselves either fools or liars. But this has not stopped the Bush administration's thuggish behavior.

The US could be a great force for good. Studies like one by the World Health Organization's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health show that with an $11 trillion dollar annual national income, America could finance the control of AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and many other killer diseases for a small fraction of the money it wastes in Iraq. Instead, US financial assistance to the world's poor countries as a share of national income is the lowest of any donor country...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. As a very rich country,

I feel we have a moral obligation to help other people who are in need. We have squandered our resources and dropped our obligation to help others. I am ashamed of our country, and sincerely hope President Kerry is able to put us back on the right track.

[MichiganVote]

2. We don't even take care of our own people

and every dime is either given or taken away for political advantage.
Morals have little to do with it.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Morals have everything to do with it

You are absolutely correct in that the rich and powerful elements in this country are screwing the poor in this country. The fact that we don't even take care of our own just makes us that more morally bankrupt.

[MichiganVote]

4. To be power - less

is not the same as being morally bankcrupt. I think Americans want to be generous, we lack the power, we lack a place at the table, and we lack funding. Unless you're one of the political, religious or corporate elite, you are not going to be a decision maker.

That what I mean to say.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Ah, now I understand

I was, of course, referring to people with political/monetary clout. What is interesting is that people who are rich and greedy and uncaring seem always to get the publicity. There ARE rich folks in this country with a social conscience, but they rarely get the publicity. Check out www.refugeesinternational.org The folks on the Board have bucks, but volunteer their time and pay for their factfinding trips. A couple of them were killed in 1999 while they were in the kosovo area putting up a communication system for refugees-and they had bought the system themselves. You can read about them on this tribute page: http://www.geocities.com/ayeshahaqqiqa/heroes.html

[ixion]

6. like it or not... 'Murika will have to learn to play nice with the other

big kids on the block.

Hopefully we'll get this through our collective heads sooner rather than later.

[indigobusiness]

7. America's meteoric rise was fueled by exploitation

of the world's resources. Its decline will be marked by its denial of the fact that the party's over and the fat's in the fire.

The problem is its leadership races forward with their eyes in the rear-view mirror. Without a shift to more sustaining and less exploitive culture, America will continue its death spiral.

[The Zanti Regent]

8. The spoiled fruit of rotted religion

Preacher after preacher brainwash people every Sunday with the bullshit that America is God's Chosen Nation and that a person's wealth correlates exactly with their faith. They constantly push the Ayn (as in Mine) Randian Get yours and screw everyone else crap and wrap it in with the other fractured fairy tales that are in the Bi BULL.

This nation has been collapsing since the first Oil shock in October 1973. The Nazi Party and their corporate pals have been exploiting American workers since 1973 and stripping away every dollar they can from the pockets of the workers. By pushing so-called Free Trade, they have effectively deinstrialized America and are accelerating the downward spiral of wages that David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus wrote about in the 19th Century and Joseph Schumpeter railed against in the 20th Century. Schumpeter went as far as to refer to Ayn Rand as the Living Devil perverting every aspect of American life.

Yet the disciples of Rand see nothing wrong in destroying America. I guess their wet dream of multiple Galt's Gulches might pop up somewhere in Christian Idaho after the US breaks up in a couple of years if the Nazi Party steals another election(which it will do and in a more disastrous fashion than the USSR did.

[glitch]

9. I believe we had a chance

up until 1980. Then we took the wrong path and since then we've been like the fruit flies in the petri dish, going through the motions of life, unaware they're already extinct.
Ok that was a downer. It ain't over til it's over. I take a lot of comfort following the works of people still fighting for a sustainable economy.
But I very much doubt the U.S. will be the apex culture that brings it on. The fact that we've been using force instead of influence pretty much indicates the extent of our decline.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I agree that Reagan was the wrong turn

in more ways than one.

As things stand, other countries are doing a better job of thinking about and preparing for possible future scenarios.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Actually, the fundie preachers can preach as they do only because

they ignore much of what is in the Bible.

I'd bet that your average fundamentalist thinks that "The Lord helps those who help themselves" is in the Bible. It isn't. It's a saying of Benjamin Franklin.

Both the Jewish prophets and Jesus, and even Paul to some extent, come down very hard on the rich who ignore or oppress the poor. Somehow, the fundies never seem to be able to find those passages.

[The Zanti Regent]

12. That's because they preach Ayn Rand, not Jesus

These lying welfare queens get in the pulpit for a single hour on a Sunday, bullshit about Jesus, and as soon as they leave their segregated enclave, they go back to following Ayn Rand's Get yours and screw everyone else mentality!

[indigobusiness]

13. Ayn Rand warned us

as did Orwell.

[The Zanti Regent]

14. Ayn Rand warned us to look out for number 1...

...look at all the rotted fruit she has spawned!

[indigobusiness]

16. corrupted wisdom comes in all forms

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
— Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged
Objectivism is the philosophy of rational individualism founded by Ayn Rand (1905-1982). In novels such as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Rand dramatized her ideal man, the producer who lives by his own effort and does not give or receive the undeserved, who honors achievement and rejects envy. Rand laid out the details of her world-view in nonfiction books such as The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.

Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving happiness. But one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. Fundamentally, it requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs. Happiness requires that one live by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others. Politically, Objectivists advocate laissez-faire capitalism. Under capitalism, a strictly limited government protects each person's rights to life, liberty, and property and forbids that anyone initiate force against anyone else. The heroes of Objectivism are achievers who build businesses, invent technologies, and create art and ideas, depending on their own talents and on trade with other independent people to reach their goals.

[The Zanti Regent]

18. "Objectivism" in practice means look out for #1 and screw everyone else!

That's right.

According to Ayn, you lie cheat and steal to get to the top, just like the clown who won Trump's game show.

But how did you get there?
Whose lives did you ruin?
What did you destroy?
What do you do when you get to the top?
What happens when you fall from the top?
What about those who never get a chance to try?
What about those marginalized by a selfish world?

Ayn Rand NEVER addresses those questions because she doesn't care, and those are the same views shared by the Jesusistas who crawl into a pulpit for a single segregated hour every Sunday!

[glitch]

15. Ayn Rand warned us by example, as an anti-role model

Like the rest of the right wing.
I don't think they mean to model 'how not to be', but they sure do it well!

[indigobusiness]

17. A perfect foil

Any true wisdom tradition advocates selflessness.

Her rationalizations are stunningly wrong-headed.