The Whole Country is Going Down!

Seriously, though, how long can we keep it up? How much lower can the value of the dollar go?

Pat Buchanan writes a somewhat alarmist and pessimistic, but nonetheless insightful article about the US economy.

Essentially it boils down to the position that the rest of the world is snickering and waiting for the USA to implode like Russia did, so that they can get on with their own economies. Sure, a lot of people are going to be hurt if the US goes belly-up economically, but in the long run, all of the more mature countries will probably be better off without our shenanigans. Europe, Japan, and to a lesser extent, China, are all poised to be the at the forefront of a new world economy, while the USA is trying as best it can to hold on to the Pyramid-Scheme-style economic policy that skyrocketed us to stardom in the last century.

Of course, this places all of us in the USA in something of a dilemma. If we are able to rein in our massive over-spending, we could possibly step back from the edge and walk calmly down the side of the mountain. The USA could become one of the most sustainable economies out there, and undoubtedly the largest, if only we could focus on what matters and leave the rest alone. Alas, our leaders have complicated everything terribly. DeathandTaxes is a great place to start to see just how convoluted the national budget is.

In the end, I really just feel betrayed, over and over again. I am told to be responsible, to keep my credit score up, to spend wisely so that someday I might emerge from the debt-ridden depths to bathe in the warm sunlight of a positive net-worth. I am told all of this while my government goes out and spends money like a little child in a room full of candy with no parents to be found. It is aggravating. It seems that were we funding our nation responsibly, we would have more than enough for a good national education system, a good national health care system, and a good national defense, with enough left over for things like NASA and infrastructure.

Instead our leaders are playing the part of the family in debt up to their eyeballs, unwilling to change their lifestyle, and deciding to go on a pleasure-cruise to the middle-east. We could be slowly turning the economy around (we almost did, right around the turn of the millennium), instead the government has succumbed to its own propaganda, and is trying to spend and consume its way out of debt.

The Canadian dollar has for the first time surpassed the value of the American dollar, so perhaps the solution lies directly at our northern door. I hear Toronto is pretty in the Fall.

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