Trade Deficit has crippled the United States of America

But we're also sending all our jobs to China, thus having corporate execs make big bonuses for saving money while having a humongous unemployment for The Little Guy.

On the other hand, we give corporations huge tax breaks to go overseas. So I guess we're paying fat cats big bucks to make bigger bucks, screw the rest of us, and flush the economy in the toilet.

 

Charlie Sheen is only in the news to you if you take the time to read or watch his antics. Nothing says you can't change the channel or browse another website.
Rather than get all steamed up over Charlie Sheen, realize that he is in the news because the desparate networks are forced to put on their channels what will sell the most of their sponsors' products.
This speaks to the watchers of these news shows and the buyers of the products that put them on the air.
If you want this garbage off the air get a pad and paper a write down the names of the companies that are advertising and therefore promoting this garbage and buy their competitors products.
We can spend lots of time holwing at the moon about this but the way we really vote is with our pocketbooks.

 

Chinese are very happy with a one bedroom house, a shower, one car, maybe, a cell phone and simple healthy food on the table. Kinda like us in the 50's.

Americans on the other hand need 3 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, 2-3 cars, each his own smartphone, a $200 cable bill, snowblower, riding lawnmower, 3 HD TV sets, restaurant visits on Wednesday and Saturday Nights, buy 50 bucks worth of lottery tickets on the way home from work on payday. And most or all is leveraged onto credit card debt and we're stilll not happy. So what is the problem?

You decide.

 

Well... yes, but. While Walter Cronkite was, indeed, a well-respected reporter of the news, the media has always been manipulated and owned by the corporations that funds them, along with the government that "allows" them to report.

No, we do not have a free press. We do have the freedom to have one, but there is no such thing, as long as the government can, will, and does, prevent or promote certain "news stories" to influence public opinion of government actions; and as long as corporations own newspapers and TV stations.

Even Cronkite was influenced to report news - particularly the war news - in such a way as to further governmental and corporate aims.

It's all bread and circuses. Always has been - always will be.

Edited: I bolded the word "Educational" in your quote. Yes, it was educational. We were all educated in what our overlords wanted us educated in.

 

It is talked about every day. Watch a little CNBC instead of NBCABCCBS.

And quit blaming the US. We are nowhere near as bad off as countries like Spain and Greece.
If you could get all of China's money and pay them next to nothing in interest wouldn't you do it?
Remember when the Japanese bought everything they could in the US, defaulted and we got it all back. Places like Breckenridge Ski Area come to mind.
The US is third from the bottom in taking in tax revenue so we have a little wiggle room when it comes to paying our bills. And who should we tax when it comes to generating more revenue? Common sense says the richest among us. But that's not what Boehner and his buddys say. Why that's wealth redistribution and it's a bad thing for the American people he says. Tell that to people whose unemployment has run out and have moved in with neighbors they don't even know.

 

First of all, look in the mirror

Second of all, watch this

over and over and over and over until you finally DO get it

 

But the truth hurts

 

That it does, my friend. It's been hurting for a long time - no surprise the only real sanity I find is as far from so-called civilisation as possible, deep in the forest, on a mountain peak, or out to sea. I don't spend much - that only feeds the hand that bites me, and I don't punch any clocks. Still, life among the drones is not entirely satisfying. Time to build an ark, methinks. Just a nice little sailboat, as self-sufficient as can be.

 

maybe the uprising in the middle east will be good for everybody.

 

What you didn't say is that US exports hit a record high in December, which is great news if it weren't for oil imports. Unfortunately, the drill-baby-drill and give-tax-breaks-to-the-oil-companies Republicans keep us addicted to oil.

Amazingly, Republicans here in NH and ME want to repeal the regional greenhouse gas initiave want to repeal the regional carbon auction because they say they don't believe in subsidizing energy efficiency. Huh?

No, I am NOT a Democrat.

 

May be. Egypt, Libya, Yemen....Wisconsin. Yeah, something going on in *that* middle east, too.

Well, you're not exactly sounding like a faithful, obedient Republican at the moment.

 

it's an insurrection! the south will rise again! civil disobedience! okay, i've gotta lay off the caffeine.

 

Correct. I WAS a Republican once, but then I realized that being 'obedient' wasn't thinking for myself.

 

The petroleum addiction is the killer. What is the per capita spending on gasoline in this country? The average 2-job family has two cars, maybe 15--20 mpg average. At 10-15K miles per year for each car, just figure out how much foreign oil the average family is buying every year. A big chunk of their income with gas at $3.50 a gallon.

Most Americans, however, don't think of gas that way. They just figure it comes out of the ground at the local gas station.

 

What problem?
Walmart executives are making huge incomes.
So are the Chinese workers.(huge bowls of rice for $1.50 a day)
Just because America is fu!ked doesnt mean that there arent people profiting from our trade status.
Obama won the election promising to renegotiate NAFTA.
This past week Mexican truckers were approved to do long hauls throughout the USA.
Obama did nothing to prevent it.
Politicians can win elections protecting American jobs,they just need to follow though on their promises.
Dont misconstrue my post,Im a Democrat.
Republicans will never solve this problem.
But we need a better Dem President

 

So if that wasn't enough of a eye opener, here is another one

And no, we are NOT free

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiBt-pqp0E&feature=related]YouTube - YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS - George Carlin[/ame]

 

[FONT=arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
[SIZE=-2] Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY) [/SIZE] ​

[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

I agree with this. Politically we look to the next election only and that's all that matters. Long term problems are endlessly kicked. I think the political system in the country and its myopia is truly a chronic sickness hard to overestimate in severity. The deficit, decades of it, has put the US in a terrible stance as has its obsession with outsourcing.

Is this to show that 150 years ago people still worried? Lincoln was right. Case in point: robber barons, they creamed people around turn of the century and politicians were basically owned outright (and this trend is again in vogue with lobbying and its exponential growth). The barons had to be put in check and a revolution of workers' rights.

The US is currently rewarding the rich while the middle and lower classes stagnate. Heck, look at this recession. We are at now record corporate profits--they literally have never done better. But 10% unemployment.