@stu said in Bernie Sanders:
@kilemall said in Bernie Sanders:
@gators1 said in Bernie Sanders:
@kilemall said in Bernie Sanders:
@blanks said in Bernie Sanders:
@stu said in Bernie Sanders:
Cut the military obviously.
It’s not like Russia is invading its neighbors or China is trying to claim sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean.
The thing is, as much as I don’t want the US to give up its influence, are we supposed to be the ones who foot the bill? Are we supposed to be the front lines and does all of it really rest on our shoulders?
When Trump was first elected I thought “okay, maybe he will give up the crazy rhetoric and get to business”, thinking that he would put domestic America first while at the same time taking a back seat to worldwide conflict while still supporting our allies. While that is still true to a degree, it seems like it went from taking a back seat to being in opposition to our allies. Which is not something I agree with.
Let me spell it out.
If the US pulls back, the oil does not flow from the Mideast to Europe, China and Japan.
Europe falls under the thrall of Russian oil or goes nuclear/solar power.
Japan likely gets Finlandized. Korea becomes Poland.
No one has incentive to keep the Big Green Machine propped up through eternally churning petrodollars.
Our interest rates don’t float at near zero, and the government can’t chunk in trillion dollar deficit spending.
And then. Shit gets real.
This may happen without the US pulling back, assuming the world Goes Green.
Sorry to be raw about this, but no one seems to talk about all this or connect the dots. All very surreal to me, consequences are clear to me but people keep running out onto the road and get blinded like deer. And hit.
On the flip side, if we keep spending the way we are and especially if some massive new social programs are implemented that either aren’t revenue neutral or have a significant negative effect on tax revenues then eventually it would be the same thing. Our credit risk goes up and countries start to diversify at least before pulling the plug on the USD. It was around 10 years ago when I read an article either in Economist or FT that said our credit situation then was basically the same as Argentina’s when they collapsed. The only thing keeping us afloat was the reserve currency status and that the rest of the world wasn’t ready to take a bath by dumping. Fortunately China has a ton of risk right now as well and Russia is a basket case, so nobody is going for those any time soon. I guess eventually the Euro could step in though. Or maybe Bitcoin?
First major country that goes rule of law and has self-generating industrial technological and education base, keeps the corruption down to a low roar and doesn’t deficit spend.
Canada would lead the list if they had more people and didn’t crutch on US defense.
The EU could, except for that representation issue and member tendencies to abuse the Euro for social spending, and not really a European nation-state viewpoint (more like the pre-Civil War US with a LOT more baggage).
Australia is sort of there, although it doesn’t quite rate as major in terms of population and economy.
But, they also haven’t had a recession since 1991.
Note both Canada and Australia have the same basic Common Law background we do, but have significantly smaller populations flush with similar continental resources, but much more stringent immigration limits.
