Poll of the Day > I'll be honest, I think America is done for.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Won't be right away. Will probably take a few years or so. But America is insanely divided politically and it seems like the wealthy are in the process of gutting the nation to get what cash they can before everything collapses. Prices are climbing up immensely and I highly doubt they'll start going down any time soon. Food is going to become scarce as truckers simply can't afford to deliver food the distances needed. While America might hold up long enough to protect Taiwan from China, I think that will be the final 'hurrah' before America simply can't afford to fund the military anymore. I really think America's going to be done and it's going to be a collapsed, potentially decaying, nation by 2032 with so many in the poor/homeless class and the wealthy living in luxury.

I really hate the rich. I just want enough money to be able to live the rest of my family's life quietly and so we could play games and such. Not to live some life of luxury. I don't think that's going to happen.

Cool.

ya see the cool thing about capitalism is that if you don't like your country you can just buy a new one

You're not necessarily wrong, but literally every single thing you said was wrong.

I was just reading about this port city in Australia where the temp averages between 68 and 88 degrees f all year, the min wage is 25$ US (but you get awards that boost that and stuff) and you can rent a 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment for $100/week US ($130 Aus currency).

You get 4 weeks off every year as well along with other perks.

Port douglas that was it.

Seriously if I was a bit younger.

Yep.. red states are where we should be, blue states are where we're headed

Every Dem in power right now including the President can turn this all around, and why wont they? Votes.

Unbridled9 posted...

Won't be right away. Will probably take a few years or so. But America is insanely divided politically and it seems like the wealthy are in the process of gutting the nation to get what cash they can before everything collapses. Prices are climbing up immensely and I highly doubt they'll start going down any time soon. Food is going to become scarce as truckers simply can't afford to deliver food the distances needed. While America might hold up long enough to protect Taiwan from China, I think that will be the final 'hurrah' before America simply can't afford to fund the military anymore. I really think America's going to be done and it's going to be a collapsed, potentially decaying, nation by 2032 with so many in the poor/homeless class and the wealthy living in luxury.

Most of the current issues are the result of the pandemic or Biden's stupidity. Eventually the pandemic will end and maybe someday both Biden & Harris will be far away from the White House.

But pretty much everything the US did during the pandemic will eventually lead to something catastrophic. The eviction moratorium, for instance, helped to drive a new housing crisis. Paying people to not work created a labor shortage which has contributed to inflation. Shutting down large sectors of the US has caused countless problems. While there weren't easy solutions for everything, the US generally went a route with absurd long-term consequences. And then even things like the vaccine rollout was botched, which is 100% on Biden who pledged to manage that process and then didn't.

But no, America isn't really done for because so much of the rest of the world is in a lousy state right now. Or, in simpler terms, the US is doing poorly, but so is everybody else. And when the US does collapse, it'll probably be around the same time as much of the rest of the world (and possibly driven by one of those collapses... or a driver in that collapse, like in 2008)

The problem I'm seeing is the fall of democracy. We have a treacherous ex-president that openly does Russia's bidding, and half the country supports him. Despite his completely overt attempt at overthrowing the government, he proceeds to not face any legal consequences whatsoever. Law and justice are now just antiquated concepts in this country.

You do realize we had a civil war once right? Were not even as divided as we were in the 60s tbh. All we do today is tweet condescending shit to each other. They were literally killing each other.

Lol I think your country was done for when your president tried to blackmail Ukraine into lying about his political opponent and then encouraged a storming of the capitol building by armed right wing nuts and also tried to deny an election result lol

real 3rd world dictator shit

U been done for for a long time

VideoboysaysCube posted...

We have a treacherous ex-president that openly does Russia's bidding,

I always wonder if these claims are satirical or if somebody actually believes this shit. Either way, I guffawed on reading it. Guess you're buying Kool-aid by the truck.

VideoboysaysCube posted...

Despite his completely overt attempt at overthrowing the government,

I repeat:

I always wonder if these claims are satirical or if somebody actually believes this shit. Either way, I guffawed on reading it.

VideoboysaysCube posted...

he proceeds to not face any legal consequences whatsoever.

Overlooking he did nothing and also literally advocated that protestors surrender the building, there's literally legal proceedings that've been targeting him for two years now. And that's in addition to another partisan proceeding.

VideoboysaysCube posted...

Law and justice are now just antiquated concepts in this country.

The funny thing is it's not for the reasons you're thinking.

I didn't even get to say inB4, here, and the obvious has already happened.

ok doomer

I mean...we made it through a Civil War. I think we'll be alright.

Also the shortage of workers in the transportation sector isn't because the drivers can't afford it or whatever the fuck you said. That doesn't even make sense. The shortage comes from the handful of major shipping companies refusing to pay contract drivers fair rates.

JixHedgehog posted...

Yep.. red states are where we should be

Broke and stupid?

papercup posted...

Broke and stupid?

That's a very bad generalization.

Country isn't all red, yet

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/upshot/an-atlas-of-upward-mobility-shows-paths-out-of-poverty.html

I think the world was done for soon after this century began. It will only get worse because things will always get worse, never better. If they get better, then it's too good to be true, and will suddenly get much worse than they've ever been.

Hey Zeus how does Putin's cock taste?

This is such a boring take.

wolfy42 posted...

I was just reading about this port city in Australia

Seriously if I was a bit younger.

Yeah, but then you'd have to deal with throttled and censored Internet. And drop bears.

And Thunderdomes.

Okay, so maybe most of what I know about Australia comes from Mad Max.



JixHedgehog posted...

Every Dem in power right now including the President can turn this all around

They really can't.

Most of what people are complaining about today are the consequences of global socioeconomic factors outside of anyone's direct control. The US basically stole its way into the top economic powerhouse position after Europe was devastated by two world wars (there's a reason why everyone thinks of the 1950s as the US economic Golden Age). But with Europe having recovered while China is finally shaking off the handicaps of being fucked over by the West and then their own post WWII problems, now there's suddenly competition again, and the US economy is faltering because we're not competitive enough, and we never should have been in the #1 spot in the first place. Not helped by the fact that we've basically shifted from an industrial to a service economy.

Covid only accelerated problems that were already going to inevitably be on the horizon regardless.

It's why Trump's "Make America Great Again" was also BS. Because it really isn't in the power of the US President to do so. There really aren't any laws that are going to reverse the invisible hand of the future. All Congress and the President can do is slightly slow or accelerate the slide.

People complained about the Top 1% of the US population controlling a majority of the wealth. But the US has just spent 75 years being the 1% to the rest of the world (well, more accurately, the 4%, but still). And now the rest of the world is started to demand its stuff back.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Yeah, but then you'd have to deal with throttled and censored Internet. And drop bears.

And Thunderdomes.

Oh shit!!

Does a quick Puma....er Drop bear check.

Phweeew that was close.

Also totally down for thunderdomes, and also, Australian accents and girls are hot.

fishy071 posted...

I think the world was done for soon after this century began. It will only get worse because things will always get worse, never better. If they get better, then it's too good to be true, and will suddenly get much worse than they've ever been.

I love your schtick

Most of what people are complaining about today are the consequences of global socioeconomic factors outside of anyone's direct control. The US basically stole its way into the top economic powerhouse position after Europe was devastated by two world wars (there's a reason why everyone thinks of the 1950s as the US economic Golden Age). But with Europe having recovered while China is finally shaking off the handicaps of being fucked over by the West and then their own post WWII problems, now there's suddenly competition again, and the US economy is faltering because we're not competitive enough, and we never should have been in the #1 spot in the first place. Not helped by the fact that we've basically shifted from an industrial to a service economy.

Yea no. This isn't what happened.

America always had a strong industrial and economic base. It's primary problem was it's isolationism and focus on westward expansion to successfully claim the rest of it's current landmass. It took a while to do this as well as industrialize and it didn't help that it got hit by a depression, but following WWII the depression was gone and in industry was in place. America could finally leverage all it's potential into growth.

China, meanwhile, was a backwater nation stuck in the prior century and consisted largely of rural farmers. It was further hampered by the rise of communism and Mao's policies which caused massive problems (such as driving the sparrows away which lead to mass swarms of locusts which ate all the crops). It's only recently that it's managed to shake off the problems of it's past to grow and even now it's not as 'good' as they like to claim.

The problem is that America's industry has been shot over generations while it's economy has stagnated and industrial capacity consistently reduced. The shift from an industrial to service based economy and exportation of jobs meant that we currently lack a lot of the ability to self-sustain. It's part of why former industrial cities are becoming desolate and decaying places. Because they were growing powerful because of their industry and now that's been exported overseas meaning they've lost their purpose.

America's problems started with Bush and both the war in Afghanistan (Iraq was stupid, yes, but nowhere near as problematic) and the divisive nature of his election. It's only gotten worse from there due to various issues across Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden. We've also experienced the rise of mega-corporations that can utterly dominate any local business. Beforehand, while large retail existed, it has it's expansion issues and simply couldn't leverage the level of power it wields now.

America's got a lot of problems and I'm convinced it's doomed and one of the major reasons why is it's corporations being greedy and more than willing to gut for personal gain; however it not only earned it's place at the top legitimately but China's own failure is both due to the policies enacted under their own communist system and isn't as truthful as they like to make it out to be.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/9/1/AALiV_AADFuj.jpg

The website you took that from is one heck of a red flag there.

Entity13 posted...

I didn't even get to say inB4, here, and the obvious has already happened.

We need to start doing "inB4 Entity does a shitty inB4"

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Most of what people are complaining about today are the consequences of global socioeconomic factors outside of anyone's direct control. The US basically stole its way into the top economic powerhouse position after Europe was devastated by two world wars (there's a reason why everyone thinks of the 1950s as the US economic Golden Age). But with Europe having recovered while China is finally shaking off the handicaps of being fucked over by the West and then their own post WWII problems, now there's suddenly competition again, and the US economy is faltering because we're not competitive enough, and we never should have been in the #1 spot in the first place. Not helped by the fact that we've basically shifted from an industrial to a service economy.

Not for nothing, but the US was also a global powerhouse before that... partly thanks to another world war basically doing the same thing >_>

Although even before that, the US was an economic powerhouse.

That said, changes in the 1960s and 1970s went a lot way in eroding America's advantage and reducing its momentum.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

and the US economy is faltering because we're not competitive enough

...which is directly connected to things like labor practices/laws. To stay competitive, most industrialized nations have shifted production elsewhere to nations with less regulation, fewer labor laws, etc. Which, by the way, is why the US government has been trying to push for global, which would effectively gut poorly nations which can only offer labor.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

and we never should have been in the #1 spot in the first place.

There's no reason America shouldn't have been #1. All other things being equal, the US has tremendous natural advantages -- its only issues are being naturally further from some markets and the country being younger (so it didn't have the historical in-roads). The latter is less of an issue now.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Not helped by the fact that we've basically shifted from an industrial to a service economy.

...because government regulations moved the industrial sectors elsewhere. And until you have global standards leveling the playing field, it's going to make more sense to have industry elsewhere.

Unbridled9 posted...

America always had a strong industrial and economic base. It's primary problem was it's isolationism and focus on westward expansion to successfully claim the rest of it's current landmass.

I mean, for a resource-rich nation, isolationism isn't necessarily a problem. Trade is more of a necessity when your country lacks something or somebody else does it much, much better. You could have a largely isolated nation that's worlds ahead of every other country. Ultimately trade is trade, production is production, and resources are resources.

Historically, isolation has only been an issue when a country is losing out on technological advancements (which has generally played out via war) or is lacking in some area.

Unbridled9 posted...

it didn't help that it got hit by a depression,

...you know that was worldwide, right? Because you're phrasing like it only impacted the US instead of the developed world.

Hey Zeus I've been modded twice because I hurt your fee fees, still think the mods have it out for you?

You people need to get out more.

Some small economical hardship, and now you think you know what suffering is like? World over?Jesus.

The_Viscount posted...

I mean, for a resource-rich nation, isolationism isn't necessarily a problem. Trade is more of a necessity when your country lacks something or somebody else does it much, much better. You could have a largely isolated nation that's worlds ahead of every other country. Ultimately trade is trade, production is production, and resources are resources.

Historically, isolation has only been an issue when a country is losing out on technological advancements (which has generally played out via war) or is lacking in some area.

...you know that was worldwide, right? Because you're phrasing like it only impacted the US instead of the developed world.

Fair enough. I've only heard about it in relation to America and it's not something I've particularly cared about to look into (I focus more on medieval, classical, and ancient history) so I usually just assumed it was an America-focused event.

Zareth posted...

Hey Zeus I've been modded twice because I hurt your fee fees, still think the mods have it out for you?

I have no clue who you are.