With all the resources that have gone into training and paying troops, and developing and building aircraft and vehicles and ships, it might have been possible to deliver universal health care and good education to Americans at home.
China has become influential with its soft power projects. Its Belt and Roads initiatives have made international friends, and its concentration on infrastructure has led to high-speed trains and gleaming cities.
Of course, having Chinese engineers in charge rather than American lawyers does change the outcome of things.
I'm more conflicted on this than I was when I was young. It was fun to put the screws to Eisenhower, jab at Johnson, or click my tongue at Clinton. But I've come to appreciate the complexity of the world order that arose out of the US effectively serving as guarantor of a global economic system that probably fostered a more lasting peace than ever was possible had we either retreated into isolationism or engaged in traditional empire building at the end of WWII.
I don't know. If the world could have heeded our better angels maybe. But the last decade has shown the cracks that form when we seem to be stepping back and the world looks more like the end of the 19th century than anything.
Now, had Carter's solar panels stayed on the White House I think we'd much better off. The oil economy is a significant matter. But it's not the entire picture.
All great comments. Wish more people thought through things to this level. Wish more people were capable of doing so.
I don't know if this is a jab at me, but if it is, I guarantee you that I have thought through things to a far, far deeper level than you can know, to the point that I am alone in recognizing that superpowerhood causes massive deficits that threaten the solvency of the nation itself.
Physics Guy made a comment that you ought to consider:
With all the resources that have gone into training and paying troops, and developing and building aircraft and vehicles and ships, it might have been possible to deliver universal health care and good education to Americans at home.
All great comments. Wish more people thought through things to this level. Wish more people were capable of doing so.
I don't know if this is a jab at me, but if it is, I guarantee you that I have thought through things to a far, far deeper level than you can know, to the point that I am alone in recognizing that superpowerhood causes massive deficits that threaten the solvency of the nation itself.
Physics Guy made a comment that you ought to consider:
With all the resources that have gone into training and paying troops, and developing and building aircraft and vehicles and ships, it might have been possible to deliver universal health care and good education to Americans at home.
I don't know if this is a jab at me, but if it is, I guarantee you that I have thought through things to a far, far deeper level than you can know, to the point that I am alone in recognizing that superpowerhood causes massive deficits that threaten the solvency of the nation itself.
Sorry, Shades. I just happened to read honorentheos' bit here. Like Physics Guy, honorentheos is usually so thoughtful and interesting a read that I go out of my way to look for his posts. I did not specifically seek to make a jab at something you said in this thread.
Physics Guy made a comment that you ought to consider:
With all the resources that have gone into training and paying troops, and developing and building aircraft and vehicles and ships, it might have been possible to deliver universal health care and good education to Americans at home.
Yeah! I do consider that. I don't think there is an easy answer. I took honorentheos to be struggling with that same terrible trade off. Physics Guy makes an excellent point.
I don't know if this is a jab at me, but if it is, I guarantee you that I have thought through things to a far, far deeper level than you can know, to the point that I am alone in recognizing that superpowerhood causes massive deficits that threaten the solvency of the nation itself.
Aren’t you a libertarian, though?
A slightly left-leaning Libertarian. I’d prefer that we (the United States) not deficit spend. I’d also prefer that we Americans not be heavily taxed. But if it’s impossible to elect people who don’t think those are wonderful things, then I’d prefer that the money make it back to the taxpayers in a tangible way.
As it is, we have a perfect trifecta of everything I vehemently dislike. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I can't help but strongly suspect that the whole Zionism movement and the establishment of the modern state of Israel have probably caused, overall, more harm than good for the world in general, and even for Jews and Judaism in particular. Even Israel is far from guilt-free in this tragedy.
Britain and its American backers were not very far-sighted when they carved up Palestine.
A big amen to that!
The huge tragedy in this whole Middle Eastern mess is that both the Jews and the Palestinians in the region would be so much better off in almost every way had it not been for the bitter and intractable hatred for each other. I don't believe either the Israelis or Palestinians are inherently eviler than the other. The religious differences between them should be seen by both groups to be irrelevant compared to the moral ideals and convictions of how people should treat their fellow beings that I'm sure they both share. It is a prime example of how religious zealotry too often does far more harm than good by persuading "righteous" believers to condone hatred and evil against others who are not like themselves.
As far as I'm concerned, the one important religious principle really worth preserving is that of avoiding unnecessarily harming or endangering one's fellow beings. Even whether or not one believes in a god or a hereafter is less important than that!
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
A slightly left-leaning Libertarian. I’d prefer that we (the United States) not deficit spend. I’d also prefer that we Americans not be heavily taxed. But if it’s impossible to elect people who don’t think those are wonderful things, then I’d prefer that the money make it back to the taxpayers in a tangible way.
As it is, we have a perfect trifecta of everything I vehemently dislike. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Shades, are you aware of any governments post WW II that have operated at a surplus or break even for years at a time? I've never looked, but it might be interesting to look at the experience of such a government.
he/him we all just have to live through it,
holding each other’s hands.
