Generic-Imitation wrote:wow a lot of politics got shoved into this topic. ok.. I wanna chime in too! I think the recession that the US is in currently is being done on purpose, for several reasons. Some obvious, some not so obvious. The first one is going to require you to put your thinking caps on.
The US govt. in 2006 had about a 47K per household income level (just rounding here please) while Canada(I love you guys) had about 34-37k per household income level. Now lets travel south to Mexico. They sat at around 13K per household. So if there was to be a "North American Trade Alliance/Agreement" (NAFTA) that would probably be modeled after the EU we would pretty much merge our economies together. The first steps have already been taken by the countries involved. The US is slowly weakening it's economy, so that when NAFTA's end game is ready we can merge without bankrupting ourselves at home in the immediate aftermath that will become AU or whatever they'll call it. If they were to do it now with the disparity between each of the nations, most notably Mexico, Canada and US would be bankrupt within 2 months, not because of any war... but, let me explain it another way.
well look at 3 glasses of water. each of them has a different amount of water. now slice the glass at the lowest level glass along all 3 glasses. The water rushes out of the 2 glasses with more water, but the 3rd glass is still as full as it was before. This is probably a bad way to describe what would happen, but hopefully you get my point.
So on to another topic. GAS PRICES!!! yes the average American is griping about how the price of oil is skyrocketing out of control!! Well, settle down killer. The price of oil isn't going up that quickly, just the American dollar(which oil is traded in) is going down due to inflation rapidly. I'm sure the price has risen, but it's mostly due to the weakening of the dollar, due to the govt. printing money for the war. INFLATION. You know what else has gone up in price? GOLD. Gold is a perfect measurement of inflation. When it rises in such a manner that it has for the last 2 years, you know your currency is going to shit. The historical data proves that the best indicator of runaway inflation is gold. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know a hedge fund from a double blind trust.
There you go, I'm sure there is plenty of ammo, and I just want to say one more thing before I go. Most Americans while great people(I am an American) are completely oblivious to the world around them. They take everything at face value and never look down the road until their looking a deer in the face.
P.S. I think that the locals know what is best for their beach. If they've been driving on it, I see no reason to stop them.
The reason that the USD has caved is simple economics, nothing more. The US floods the World with its currency since it buys far more than it sells. There is no demand for American products, even from Americans.....simple supply and demand, not a great conspiracy to level the playing field.
Regarding gas prices...these " high " prices you now see in the US have been the status quo in other countries for years, yet they function normally and remain competitive and are a non-issue. This is just a lousy excuse for an inefficient and uncompetitive business culture. The US has benefited from an unfair advantage in the past (cheap resources), and now that this advantage is dwindling, it is no longer competitive on a global scale.