What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

[Garrick]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

bush is not a threat to our security. that's stupid. he might not be bright, but he doesn't make these decisions by himself. and you can't hold him accountable for the ignorance of other leaders like pong wong jong II.

[thesightless]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

smartest thing said so far here. its funny how ppl discount what he done on the good side. and what he tried to do with social security, education, and opening north and central american trade even more.

[rubyraks]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

Biggest threats:

1. our oil addiction and a lack of interest in developing alternative fuels (and note this would go quite far in dealing with our terrorism issues)

2. special interests and paid for politicians (which literally "fuels" our oil addiction)

3. an education system on the decline (from elementary straight through college, all levels of students are falling further and further behind other countries) and let's be honest a college education today is about the equivalent of a high school education 20 years ago

4. high fructose corn syrup (in practically all foods nowadays), if the above don't kill us, we'll just eat ourselves to death and these just help us speed up that process.

smartest thing said so far here. its funny how ppl discount what he done on the good side. and what he tried to do with social security, education, and opening north and central american trade even more.

let's see what he's done:

social security - lot of talk about a plan to benefit investment banks because of more trades on the market and a bigger risk to future SS recipients (due to unqualified laymen trading) and nothing done in the end

education - not a bad idea, unfortnately doesn't distinguish between normal students and those with disabilities, but expects both to be up to the same levels...oh yeah and a serious lack of funding for the plan voted in

opening trade with the americas, making more money for our corporate giants at the same time you're moving American jobs out of the country, sheer genius

and for the record sightless, I'm not saying nothing right has been done by Bush, I just don't think these are great examples of that.

[Jenks]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

Ben - 1
Sean - 0

[rubyraks]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

and for the record, bush's ss plan wouldn've been as much of a windfall to investment banks and traders as the sarbanes oxley act (response to enron scandal) was, ironically, to accounting firms.

[Lorn]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

Biggest threats:



4. high fructose corn syrup (in practically all foods nowadays), if the above don't kill us, we'll just eat ourselves to death and these just help us speed up that process.

I agree with that.

[thesightless]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

well, as we stand right now, we have about 17 years left of SS before it runs out. so any alternative was better. by privatising it, at least it would begin to earn on itself, instead of relying on taxpayers.

im with ya on the education. but a lot stems from the lack of accountability wit teachers, students and parents. ben you saw it firsthand 2 years ago, when the regents testing in NY was actually sued in a class action suit to lessen requirements and to make the tests easier... WHY?!?!?! shouldnt we be making them tougher and forcing the kids to learn more? we cant lower standards to suit stupid people, we need to make stupid people more intelligent.

and as for sending jobs out of the country, go ask the labor unions. companies, outside of the upper eschelon, are losing profitability by staying here, so they go elsewhere.

so yeah, he had good steps. by lowering the trade tariffs on exports, he attempted to encourage in increase in american exports.

[rubyraks]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

well, as we stand right now, we have about 17 years left of SS before it runs out. so any alternative was better. by privatising it, at least it would begin to earn on itself, instead of relying on taxpayers.

im with ya on the education. but a lot stems from the lack of accountability wit teachers, students and parents. ben you saw it firsthand 2 years ago, when the regents testing in NY was actually sued in a class action suit to lessen requirements and to make the tests easier... WHY?!?!?! shouldnt we be making them tougher and forcing the kids to learn more? we cant lower standards to suit stupid people, we need to make stupid people more intelligent.

and as for sending jobs out of the country, go ask the labor unions. companies, outside of the upper eschelon, are losing profitability by staying here, so they go elsewhere.

so yeah, he had good steps. by lowering the trade tariffs on exports, he attempted to encourage in increase in american exports.

I agree something has to be done on ss soon, but that doesn't equal "anything is better than nothing"

and we definitely agree on education, the problem very often lies with the labor unions and tenure for crappy teachers.

and once again, here's the issue with supposed free trade. Of course, it's less profitable to produce in the US with our labor regulations, age, safety, etc., as opposed to foreign countries whose regulations, if any, are lax. But there's a reason we have these regulations and we are just being greedy hypocrites by saying it's ok for our companies to outsource.

[thesightless]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

and once again, here's the issue with supposed free trade. Of course, it's less profitable to produce in the US with our labor regulations, age, safety, etc., as opposed to foreign countries whose regulations, if any, are lax. But there's a reason we have these regulations and we are just being greedy hypocrites by saying it's ok for our companies to outsource.

www.ford.com i know that you know more than enough about accounting and financial data. go check out COGS, wages, and benifits over the last 20 years. the COGS follows our country's inflation rate pretty evenly, only spiking during tense world times when the metals and materials shot up. however, the wages and benifits costs have risen about 4% higher every year than the COGS, and the downturns in these costs can be directly tied to massive layoffs.

ben , you live here in NY, go check out the local 3 costs, or even take a peek at the new teachers contract. its disgusting. i hire illegal labor and non union shops for our brroklyn constructions simply because i can save about 9% on total costs.

[Kobe]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?


Lock Box

[Xessex]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

I'd say be aware of possible new coalitions

I'm thinking of Russia vs China. I'm seeing a future spindoctor in Russia.

[rubyraks]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

www.ford.com i know that you know more than enough about accounting and financial data. go check out COGS, wages, and benifits over the last 20 years. the COGS follows our country's inflation rate pretty evenly, only spiking during tense world times when the metals and materials shot up. however, the wages and benifits costs have risen about 4% higher every year than the COGS, and the downturns in these costs can be directly tied to massive layoffs.

ben , you live here in NY, go check out the local 3 costs, or even take a peek at the new teachers contract. its disgusting. i hire illegal labor and non union shops for our brroklyn constructions simply because i can save about 9% on total costs.

The teachers contracts I already dealt with and agree with you. As for other labor unions, I feel you as well. I've never been a huge fan. In fact I feel they made their contribution back towards the turn of the century when they were dealing with the safety issues that our government wasn't (see Triangle fire ). They've also managed to shift some of the labor power towards the workers (which needed to be done), but it's reached the point where they've gone too far, ie. ridiculous benefits (your ford example) and unfair wages. If they'd stick to keeping it fair, rather than the blackmail it's become, we'd all be much better off with it, but alas they're just as greedy as the people employing them.

[thesightless]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

if they kept it fair, there would be about 320,000 ppl employed since the day sen. kerry proposed his version of the NAFTA agreements, which were ultimately accepted and made ppl like me realize that we can get better quality elsewhere while making more money.

[rubyraks]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

nope, don't get that one...320K people employed where?

[thesightless]

Re: What is the Biggest Threat to the United States Right Now?

320,000 auto and industrial manufacturing jobs that were lost since 94, seeing companies like grumman, ford, UTC and many more outsource to private contractors and foreign businesses.