Re: OT: Inflammatory Post of the Week


Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote:
> <bill.sloman@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1132495603.728615.161270@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > Regrettably, my carping is relatively well-informed - try this from the
> > top of a google search on "U.S. balance of payments deficit"
> >
> > http://www.digitaleconomist.com/bop_4020.html
>
> That is not the US's problem; it will be the problem of whoever insists on
> being long US Assets (like European pension funds), but the average American
> can rightly ignore the deficit!

IIRR, the trade deficit is pretty close to what the U.S. spends on
importing oil. If the trade deficit is drastically cut back, the
domestic price of oil and gasoline is going to have to rise
dramatically, and the average U.S.consumer is going to have to make
painful choices about transport and home heating - the country is going
to have to consume a lot less oil, and that is going to hurt (in the
short term).

> It never fail to annoy people that one *can* be irresponsible without being
> punished. To annoy double, one should have fun while being irresponsible.
>
> The American image of Guns, Petrol guzzling cars, Booze and combining all
> three, shooting the *** out of stuff in the desert must really annoy the
> puritan have-not's that are left behind.

There's nthing particularly annoying about natural selection in action,
if they aren't killing themselves off on my doorstep.

> > You probably don't like hearing that your bubble is on the verge of
> > bursting, but if we can drag you through denial to resignation and
> > acceptance, you may find a way to anticipate some of the problems that
> > will show up when the situation comes to a head.
>
> Who is in denial:

Think about it ....

> The last time the US economy really blew up, it was *Europe* that got itself
> into two wars and got about 70 Million killed over it. If/When it blows
> again, I predict that the Muslims will get an entirely new perspective on
> the Jews from their shared experience and that we will easily beat the 100
> Million target too. And that the US will eventually put a stop to it.

The U.S. did precipitate the Great Depression

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

and the damage that it did to Germany did - indirectly - lead to WW2.
One hopes that Europe is in less of mess this time, and better placed
to weather the storm.

> > reasonably apply for. For my age-group in the Netherlands, the chance
> > that any individual application will lead to a job is less than 0.1% -
> > about one in seventy get a job in any one year. I've got a lot more to
> > offer than the average applicant, but so far all I've had has been a
> > couple of job interviews. One would have got me a job, if the project
> > had gone through ...
>
> The failing of the "wellfare state" - we tax wages heavily to spend money on
> "wellfare" which - like the magic cauldron -is alledged to create all good
> things like Job's. At the same time we tax tobacco and spirits to get *less*
> of it ... ??

My problem is that I'm 62, and the Dutch suffer badly from age-ism.
This has very little to do with the Dutch "welfare state" and a lot to
do with some very old-fashioned ideas about what the age-structure of
the work-force ought to look like.

> It could not be that taxes reduces jobs, which then requires more taxes to
> pay for unemployment, which then creates more "wellfare" errr people on
> "wellfare" - now could it? Of Course Not, Politicians NEVER, EVER make
> mistakes(!)!!.

Dubbya being a case in point. In fact there are quite a few high tech
jobs around in the Netherlands, and I ought to be a strong contender
for quite a few of them, but employers prefer to hire younger people if
they can persuade themselves that the kiddies can do the job.

> Europe is failing - France is just a precursor - and that's we are so busy
> whining over America all the time; It is easier to moan over other peoples
> behaviour (which we cannot change) than to do something about one's own
> mess - especially when one has carefully created the mess over many years of
> dilligent effort.

Europe's balance of payments and budget deficits are in much better
shape than those of the US. If you want to claim that Europe is
failing, you will have to find some evidence to support this
idiosyncratic point of view.

That France is having the same sort of diadvantage minority riots that
the U.S. has been having for many years - Watts comes to mind - doesn't
make it a failed state, any more than the Rodney King riots in Los
Angles made the U.S. a failed state.

----------------
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

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