Brand America Wobbling

America blows and is WAY over-rated. Its pretty cool as a child but once you grow up and get to know your leaders and your fellow citizens, you start to hate it all. Id much rather live in the hills of Europe or something.

As usual people resort to "America spends more on it's military than the rest of the world". Yeah we spend a LOT but you must look at it in terms of GDP.

The U.S. military budget request for Fiscal Year 2005 is $420.7 billion

For Fiscal Year 2004 it was $399.1 billion.
For Fiscal Year 2003 it was $396.1 billion.
For Fiscal Year 2002 it was $343.2 billion.
For Fiscal Year 2001 it was $305 billion. And Congress had increased that budget request to $310 billion.
This was up from approximately $288.8 billion, in 2000.


Spending Level as % GDP

2005 3.9%
2001 3.4%
1997 3.4%
1993 3.8%
1989 3.4%
1985 3.9%
1981 4.9% Budget of that warmonger Carter, a result of his great economic performance the previous 4 years.

To be frank many Americans don't really care what the world thinks of us or what we do or if you like our products or not. Sorry.

If other nations would just do as we tell them, the world would be a much better place! ..........it's a joke lighten up people.

Originally posted by pavil

To be frank many Americans don't really care what the world thinks of us or what we do or if you like our products or not. Sorry.

If other nations would just do as we tell them, the world would be a much better place! ..........it's a joke lighten up people.

That's the problem isn't it. The most powerful country in the world harbours a populace that thinks it can trample wherever and on whomever it pleases. And many good Americans are just too apathetic, undereducated, selfabsorbed, or just plain busy trying to keep food on the table, to stand tall when their country actually needs them most.


[edit on 22-3-2005 by Romeo]

I just wonder where the next invasion will be...

Cause hey, the blood from Iraq won't last that long.

In the name of democracy and world peace, Hallelujah!

3.9% may seem small but it is actually very huge when you consider the accumulated debt from all the previous years of fiscal deficits-which were due to over-military spending, and the number of people working in the defense sector which are reliant on it for their incoms which are often big. If you drive down the 405 from LAX you see one defense contractor factory after another, and all those have subcontractors - the whole thing employs many people who make big paychecks..the reason the economic performance was poor under Carters was because of war-spending in the 1960's; Carter was not a corrupt pos like Reagon so he refused to re-start militerism by running huge deficits and pouring that money into the defense sector; he decided to do the right thing by pacifying the US economy, it would take years to do this and the econmy would be weak while the USA re-invented it's industrial base to be more consimer oriented. When ever the US gets to the point where they are forced to start making cuts in defense spending because of huge debt, the downward spiral will begin, the fact that the US has an ageing population just makes the eventual outcome even worse..

Originally posted by Romeo

Originally posted by pavil

To be frank many Americans don't really care what the world thinks of us or what we do or if you like our products or not. Sorry.

If other nations would just do as we tell them, the world would be a much better place! ..........it's a joke lighten up people.

That's the problem isn't it. The most powerful country in the world harbours a populace that thinks it can trample wherever and on whomever it pleases. And many good Americans are just too apathetic, undereducated, selfabsorbed, or just plain busy trying to keep food on the table, to stand tall when their country actually needs them most.


[edit on 22-3-2005 by Romeo]

Romeo ooh Romeo, that populace you are talking about is from around the world.

Originally posted by CTID56092
Agreed - particularly US consumer brands: Coca Cola, McDonalds etc are really feeling the pinch in UK.

Corporate America seems to have shot itself in the foot

Gee that means it probably just missed its brain. What a shame... a coulpe of inches to the left and... oh well

Double post.

Sorry about that.

Mods, if you please. Such obliging ppl mods, salt of the earth.

[edit on 23/3/2005 by JamesBlonde]

No matter what we do America will be lambasted by someone. We help out after the tidal waves struck but we are said by some to have done that only for PR reasons. We increase our efforts to fight AIDS in Africa but are told by some that we still haven't done enough. When we mention the word "genocide" in Dafur the the rest of the world clears it's throat and says nothing and does nothing. When we do something we believe is in our national interest we are told that we should listen more to what the rest of the world has to say and act accordingly. That is why many in the U.S. tune out what other nations have to say to us. When all you do is heap negativity on someone are you suprised that they start to ignore what you say?

Sorry for the attempt at humor, figures that would be a problem too.

Peace

[edit on 23-3-2005 by pavil]

In the howling wind comes a stinging rain
See it driving nails
Into the souls on the tree of pain
From the firefly,
A red orange glow
See the face of fear
Running scared in the valley below
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
...ah...ah...

In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
See them burning crosses
See the flames higher and higher

Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
...ah...
Bullet the blue
...ah...ah...ah...ah...ah...ah...

This guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slappin' 'em down
One hundred, two hundred

And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
Across the mud huts where the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
You take the staircase to the first floor
You turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As a man breathes into a saxophone
And through the walls you hear the city groan
Outside it's America
Outside it's America

Across the field you see the sky ripped open
See the rain through a gaping wound
Pounding on the women and children
Who run...
Into the arms...

I really cannot recall having met many humble Americans.
Modesty is not a virtue in America.. right?

Just learning the board here, how do you edit a post you have already sent? Just noticed a spelling error.

Thanks

You should see in the upper right hand corner of your post the word edit in bright red. Just click on it and you will be able to edit your post. You must be logged in in order to be able to edit your post.

Cheers!!!

Originally posted by pavil
No matter what we do America will be lambasted by someone. We help out after the tidal waves struck but we are said by some to have done that only for PR reasons. We increase our efforts to fight AIDS in Africa but are told by some that we still haven't done enough. When we mention the word "genocide" in Dafur the the rest of the world clears it's throat and says nothing and does nothing. When we do something we believe is in our national interest we are told that we should listen more to what the rest of the world has to say and act accordingly. That is why many in the U.S. tune out what other nations have to say to us. When all you do is heap negativity on someone are you suprised that they start to ignore what you say?



Sorry for the attempt at humor, figures that would be a problem too.

Peace

[edit on 23-3-2005 by pavil]

No mate you have a point. We are all suspicious of the US's motives due to recent events. On Darfur you were right, if you'd done something about it I think you would have been given credit / help. IMO you should have done something, it would have helped to re-establish your moral standing in the World.

On the Tsunami you were the only people who could provide that level of support, that you did won't be forgotten.

I don't think World hates the US per se - If you'd ditched Bush2 we'd have taken the Iraq thing as an aberation. Re-electing him said that all the US supports such crazy illegal adventures - which I know isn't the case. But the result sent some very worrying signals to the rest of the World.

With Bush3 you must take the opportunity to ditch the neo-cons - for ours and your sakes. Then put them on trial.

must be an older post my recent post has the edit box.

Thanks though