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Margo Howard | 07/14/2009 11:00 pm

Margo Howard: Whither America, Whither the World?

Our dearest Margo recently got an earful about the future of the American ‘empire’ … and shares what she learned with wOw.
Margo Howard

Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Margo’s advice column, Dear Margo, appears twice a week — on Thursdays and Fridays — on wowOwow.com.

There is much talk, in intellectual circles and out, about whither America; whither the world? Where are we headed? What path are we on? It is impossible to know, of course, but I had a most interesting conversation (first by phone, then e-mail) with a longtime friend who works in a sensitive part of the government. He doesn’t know more than we do (well, actually he probably does!) but he has thought about this question to a greater degree than most people, I would guess. He is professionally concerned with war, and wishes not to be named. I share with you his hypothesis, extrapolating to the best of my ability what he said, because it makes a great deal of sense.

This chap believes that our world is headed back to a medieval-like period … not something that will happen next week or next year, but more a trend for the century. He points to the fact that there was Rome. There was the British empire. History will record the twentieth century as that of the USA. The previous empires did not last, and he believes the American "empire" will not, either.

The reasons it cannot last, he believes, are as simple as the laws of physics. The generally accepted numbers at the turn of the last century were that America had 5% of the world’s population and used 25% of the world’s energy. Numbers like that simply are not sustainable, in terms of relative energy usage or production in a growing world.

Technology is also a great leveler. In the midst of the twentieth century much of America’s great technology was homegrown. Not all, but much. We kept producing great ideas, but production was transferred elsewhere. Now the cost of production has dropped and many more people can afford top-end technology. An advanced cellular smart phone has more computing power than was used to build the first nuclear bomb or the Apollo spaceships that took men to the moon – 40 years ago this month.

As technology spreads, so does the fundamental level of education. That does not mean tribesmen in the middle of Africa or the Amazon are necessarily becoming fluent in Java programming, but many more people in the first and second world are. Whether or not America’s great educational system is crumbling, others are definitely gaining.

The Cold War was a containment war. It will be a long time before any other single country can lead a coalition in such global containment again. A war against religious extremists cannot be fought that way, and as the world becomes more interconnected there is also a problem with American foreign policy. To understand this problem, all you have to do is understand the game of football (which he does and I do not) as played by Americans, as contrasted with the way it is played by non-Americans.

Ask any American, he said, about the game of football and he or she will tell you it is played by selected large men wearing massive amounts of padding. It is a violent game with many arcane rules. Everyone agrees on when a play starts and it keeps going until the progress of the ball grinds to a halt. Both sides then agree to return to their respective sides, figure out what to do, come together and then all start again at a specific point. Furthermore, there are many referees on the field and at the pro level there’s the use of instant replay so everyone can agree on what happened. There is also a single clock. Everyone sees the clock, everyone understands the rules about the clock and everyone agrees the game is over when the one big game clock everyone sees finally gets to zero.

254 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Patricia Partin

I don’t agree altho the football analogy makes sense of some of the senselessness we’ve seen.

My view is simply that history is cyclical. If you look at the period between the two world wars, there are hundreds of similarities. Instead of steel its nuclear, its an age of almost constant reinvention and countries are changing from one type of government to another almost daily. We don’t have the anarchists, we have the Muslims and the old world powers don’t know what to do with all these upstarts.

No matter what future you may envision, its cyclical.

By Patricia Partin on 07/15/2009 12:33 am
Kelly In Texas

Well Margo…that was a long hike for such a short reward…

What we up against is a transnational world…global governance is what the "powers that be" have been working for. America has been losing our foothold in manufacturing and our ability to be self sustaining. We have slowly been sold down the river, from bans on oil drilling to exporting our jobs overseas.

And now…Obama is making the big push towards the finish line…cap and trade will kill small business off and ensure that what is left of American jobs will be outsourced to foreign countries. Nationalize health care will make BILLIONS and BILLIONS for huge corporations and will heap more TRILLIONS upon the American taxpayers, and our health will suffer.

Our economy will be controlled by the government and we will end up under an authoritative socialist agenda. Our electric usage, gun laws and other personal behaviors will be decided by a World entity.

Our strength as a Nation was our unique form of govenance and ability of our people to be self sufficient. Both of those are being taken from us…leaving only the government and their shift of our money and country into a global pot.

This is not politics as usual…..America is being disarmed and dismantled…by this administration.

By Kelly In Texas on 07/15/2009 1:26 am
Karen R

Hmmm, railing against a "socialist" government agenda and corporatism in the same post…

1) In the developed world all economies are controlled by their national governments.

2) Over the last 25 years the US economy has been the most wide open and uncontrolled it has been since the early 1930s, when the roaring ’20s came to a screeching halt.

3) The US has never been entirely self-sufficient, but that’s not even the problem. The problem is trade imbalance (i.e. the trade deficit). The government needs to aggressively get hands-on with foreign trade issues after being hands-off for far too long. The world market has never been and never will be a free market - to govern the US as if it is is giving away the store.

4) A major factor in the trade imbalance is lack of a national energy policy.

5) The lack of a national health care policy is a major factor in the loss of US economic standing and the relative attractiveness of conducting business elsewhere (even just across the border in Canada).

6) There are two keys to a strong US - an economically empowered populace and a government guarding the nation’s best interests not those of corporate America or guilt tripping national allies.

7) Taxes always have been and always will be a control and redistribution mechanism. Reagan’s policies allowed wealth to be excessively redistributed upward to the point that instabilities have been introduced. Corrections are now required to return to a more stable position nationally, coupled with deft handling of US trade to prevent continued drain of US assets, especially as new technology and other intellectual property are developed. 

btw KIT I’m looking to sell my stainless steel Kimber Ultra Carry ll .45 but the market here seems a little glutted. I’m only asking $800-$850 which seems reasonable, given that Kimbers are backordered until early 2010. Want it?

By Karen R on 07/15/2009 6:48 am
Kelly In Texas

Karen either you are unable or unwilling to accept that HUGE corporations are the ones benefiting from the scams that the Obama administration is shoving through our system.

An authoritarian socialism is not what America is…or has voted for. Never before in our history has an administration made such a grab at govenment control over the economy. Small business is being killed….just the plan that this agenda calls for. Look into the American Small Business League and read THE FACTS.

By supporting the GIANT corporations, Obama has given them a license for monopoly. Jobs will FLY to other countries, even faster than before. Other countries ARE NOT supporting reduction of greenhouse gases ….only OUR citizens will be TAXED …only OUR citizens will have FEWER JOBSOUR citizens will be under the control of a Global entity that will decide what and how we use OUR energy….

It is ALL about putting more people on the government pay and more control of the economy by the government….it is not what America is or was founded on. A transnational governance is the agenda and many Americans did not vote for that.

You are under a drastic misconception if you think that this "redistribution of wealth" means that the wealth is going to the people…or that it is being taken from giant corporations….IT IS NOT. The "redistribution" is from the middle class and into the hands of the government that is in buisiness with the chosen few corporations that are making BILLIONS and BILLONS.

You have been deceived and you will continue to be until you drop the rhetoric and check out the FACTS.

You had better keep your Kimber…I have exercised my right to bear arms…but thanks for your sincere concern.

By Kelly In Texas on 07/15/2009 11:54 am
Karen R
The "redistribution" is from the middle class and into the hands of the government that is in buisiness with the chosen few corporations that are making BILLIONS and BILLONS.

Thank Obama’s predecessors for this. Corporatism and monopolies are characteristic of unregulated capitalism, not socialism.

By Karen R on 07/15/2009 2:06 pm
Kelly In Texas

No Karen…actually not. For this is not socialism per se…but more of an authorative socialism.

 Our problems started with the housing boom and bust thanks to Fannie and Freddie…and they had 200 "regulators" but Barney Franks, being the good little Dem zombie that he is…made sure that sub prime loans were given to those that could not pay the mortgage. But that is the plan…to overwhelm the government…and it worked.

By the way ACORN was behind the Community Reinvestment Act which was instrumental in the housing problem. Oh and Franks is still approving loans with less than 4% down….

What you are missing here is that the middle class will be destroyed (by being taxed and small business run out of existence )and there will be those on the government dole and the few huge global entities.

Poof…end of the American dream…hello transnationalism.

By Kelly In Texas on 07/15/2009 4:58 pm
Karen R

The housing boom and bust are but a symptom (soon to be followed by busts in higher education as well as health care and its affiliated insurance), not the core problem. The core problems are 1) the upward consolidation of wealth and 2) the industries that have traditionally supported the nation well since the Great Depression (primarily manufacturing) have been decimated which has resulted in US wealth pouring out of the country.

Until people realize this nothing will be corrected.

By Karen R on 07/15/2009 5:29 pm
Kelly In Texas

Not so Karen…the upward consolidation of wealth is the government and a few chosen corporations…not wealthy Americans. The push for a Global bank and govenance is behind the decimation of our manufacturing, our food supply and our economy.

OBAMA’S SHIFTY ECONOMICS

By DICK MORRIS

"Now President Obama says in The Washington Post that he never envisioned that his stimulus package would afford quick relief to the American economy, but would do so only after it had run its two-year course. But when it was passed, Obama sang a different tune, urgently demanding its enactment to speed relief to a sagging economy. He claimed it would "create or save" 600,000 jobs. Now, even as the economy loses 450,000 jobs each month, he pretends that it is a matter of time until the stimulus kicks in.

He now justifies the stimulus package by saying it was adopted to prevent the "collapse" of the economy and the banking systems. But it was really the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), first passed under President Bush, that stopped the banks from going under. At the time of the enactment of the stimulus package, Obama never mentioned that he was counting on it to save the banks.

All these shifting justifications are designed to explain why the stimulus package has totally failed to accomplish anything. Not only has it done no good. It has done significant harm by ballooning the deficit, driving up interest rates, creating doubts about the U.S. currency and fanning inflationary fears.

But Obama has paid and will continue to pay dearly for betting on his stimulus package. Because of it, the Bush recession is becoming the Obama recession much faster than it would have had he adopted a more gradual approach to solving economic problems. By jumping in immediately, as he did, in order to increase government spending and pass eight years of Democratic dreams in one day, he made the public expect a solution.

At first, a sick patient looks forward to seeing the doctor. But when the medicine his physician gives him fails to make him better, he is likely to turn on his doctor. And then, gradually, when it dawns on him that the cure is making the disease last longer and get worse, he will really get mad at the physician. This is Obama’s fate.

The stimulus package used up all the wiggle room he had to increase the budget deficit. He probably could have passed the healthcare program without a tax increase had he not already sent the deficit soaring with his massive spending. (Hillary and Bill pretended that there was no need to raise taxes to pay for their 1993 reform package and few questioned their presumption.) But now that the deficit has soared to 12 percent of the gross domestic product, everyone realizes that taxes must go up to pass healthcare "reform," making its adoption even less likely. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) has passed $550 billion of tax increases, but everyone knows that at least $1 trillion is required. And, in the current environment, Congress will not vote to add the balance to the deficit, even if Charlie wants to "charge it."

Finally, Obama has laid a trap for himself. Just as the economy is coming out of its recession — in 2010 and 2011 — and he begins to run for reelection, he is going to face massive inflation. The money supply has more than tripled since October of 2008 and is going up each week as the Fed buys Treasury bills and other securities to "monetize the debt" (i.e., give other people money so they can lend it back to the government and charge it interest for doing so). With each new infusion of cash, the problem of avoiding inflation becomes particularly severe. Obama could well lose the elections of 2012 because of the inflation his deficit has created.

Of course, we all know that the only way to put the inflation virus back in the test tube is to trigger a new recession, this time caused by massive increases in interest rates, as Fed Chairman Paul Volcker did in 1979. If the recession doesn’t doom Obama to a single term, the inflation will. And if the inflation doesn’t get him, the subsequent recession will.

The deeper he gets into his term, the more it is apparent that he threw it all away when he first took office and demanded over $1 trillion in stimulus and supplemental appropriation spending. He was doomed to lose the game right after he received the first kickoff."

 


By Kelly In Texas on 07/15/2009 6:22 pm
Karen R

Our food supply is fine.

You seem to forget that corporations are run by people - people who benefit quite nicely from them.

There will never be ‘global governance’ unless some otherwordly threat approaches the planet. Aside from a mutual desire to protect national interests while avoiding conflict (i.e. diplomacy) each nation has no reason to reject sovereignty and submit to such an authority.

By Karen R on 07/15/2009 6:46 pm
Kelly In Texas

No again Karen….our food supply is not "fine".

We will be importing more of our food due to raising costs of energy and the government keeping us from being self sufficient. (think oil) There is a man made drougth in Ca. right NOW.

Thousands of farmers and workers are going broke and losing jobs. Meanwhile fields are empty…but a sliver smelt fish is fine. Although there were acceptable plans to release the money to the farmers AND save the stupid smelt…our government decided not to. This, where most of our food is grown.

Now this produce will have to be IMPORTED which costs ALL Americans more…and opens up many concerns for our food supply.

FACT KAREN.

 Go tell Gore then…cause he is not aware that global governance is not possible. Go tell Obamas appointee Harold Koh that there is no such thing as transnationalism….

Money is reason enough…BIG HUGE CORPORATE MONEY…going Global…. World banks…yes Karen its coming.

By Kelly In Texas on 07/15/2009 7:20 pm
devon mclaughlin
Ah, yes, Dick Morris.  Lots of credibility there.  Maybe you have another Knights of Columbus poll to share?
By devon mclaughlin on 07/16/2009 12:25 am
Kelly In Texas

Yes devon….Dick Morris served as Bill Clintion’s political consultant for twenty years. He is the author of of six (6) New York TImes bestsellers and one Washington Post bestseller….

So, unless you have a better record than that…I suggest that you might want to read something of his….credibiltiy is something that he has earned.

By Kelly In Texas on 07/16/2009 4:54 pm
Suzanne Frazier

"What you are missing here is that the middle class will be destroyed" …. Kelly - I think you are using an incorrect "verb" here….

The middle class has already been successfully dismantled during the past administration.  The real question is:  Did the past administration consciously dismantle the middle class or was it "blind neglect".  Either way, the outcome was horrific for the members of the middle class and those who were climbing their way towards middle class.  For many of my friends the "American dream has already been "poofed".  Gone.  Thanks to the lack of governmental regulation by the large corporations managing Wall Street….or as we all found out not-managing Wall Street.  Self regulation didn’t work.

The real question here:  was the dismantling of the American middle class intentional.  Pretty scary. 

By Suzanne Frazier on 07/16/2009 8:01 am
Kelly In Texas

Suazanne….if you are looking to the immediate past administration, then you are not looking far enough back…However, Bush was not a socialist…he was not fiscally conservative.

Make no mistake about this…the dismantling of the middle class is NOW intentional…if you don’t think self regulation works then you need to consider the Goldman Sachs set-up with the Obama administration…now there is some self regulation for you….one that has used YOUR tax dollars to pay back the bailout and make BILLIONS on green investments.

The Obama administration is as dirty as they get….worse because they intend to take over evey aspect of your life. So stop looking back and stand up now….cap and trade is a scam….green is the new communism.

Yes Suzannne what is being done NOW under cap and trade, Nationalized health care is an intentional attack upon the middle class and small business. All for government and big business to set America upon the path to transnationalism.

By Kelly In Texas on 07/16/2009 5:12 pm
deber B
Hang in there, Kelly, you are making good sense.   I especially agree with your last sentence.   However, Obama will never see that disaster be addressed.   He is having a hard enough time getting the health bill correct. 
By deber B on 07/16/2009 5:35 pm