America Is Masquerading As a Super Power, but Unable to Support Itself
Published 07/20/07 Tom Rafter
America is a superpower? Maybe not. US military strength is unparalleled- spending more on military than the next 14 nations combined. But a superpower needs more than a military leg to stand on - it needs a dynamic and robust economy. The military muscle of the United States is masking the unsustainable downward economic spiral of the century- a country that can’t stand on its own two feet economically due to failed policies, mismanagement and massive debts.
The numbers since 1987 show escalating debt and an America living beyond its means, primarily on imports, and borrowed money:
Home Mortgages from $1.8 trillion to $8.2 trillion.
Consumer debt from $2.7 trillion to $11 trillion.
Government budget debt approaching $9 trillion.
Household debt has quadrupled.
2006 balance of trade debt at $765 billion.
These debts are increasing at alarming rates. Take for example the Balance of Trade Deficit, which looks at the amount of imports versus exports a country produces and consumes. The United States has posted a negative BOT deficit since 1971 and recently this number has skyrocketed:
Year US Balance of Trade Deficits
2001 $361 billion
2002 $421 billion
2003 $495 billion
2004 $611 billion
2005 $711 billion
2006 $765 billion
As of 2006, the United States was importing $1,450,000 per minute more than it was exporting.
A nation can not be a super power if its economy is headed for a fiscal crisis. America is racking up massive governmental and consumer debts, while at the same time refusing to cut spending. In order to sustain this spending the US relies on nations like China and Japan to support us with massive loans, $644 billion from Japan and $349 billion from China – if these two countries demanded payments on their loans it would likely sink the US economy and send the dollar into an inflationary tailspin.
In other words: this “superpower’s” economy can’t stand on its own two feet.
It’s time that Americans start paying attention to these figures and demand a change from current unaffordable and irresponsible spending, as well as our over-reliance on imports. Use the search engine on EconomyInCrisis.org to look up the address of your local congressperson and tell them it is time that America must re-develop its former production and self-sustaining manufacturing companies.
The United States can masquerade as a superpower for only so long before reality forces us into a rude awakening. We will soon wake up to the fact that we can no longer sustain our current lifestyle, support our military, and fight wars on borrowed money and imports - as one by one our creditor nations refuse to renew their loans to us. Our foreign lenders can plainly see there is no way we can ever repay these loans on a declining industrial manufacturing base with fewer American-owned wealth producing companies remaining in America after thousands of them have been sold to foreign interests in recent years.
These foreign loans are strategic - designed to lull us into a sense of apathy. Foreign lenders are postponing our country's painful reckoning and muting the warning signs that would normally accompany such massive and untenable deficits. The undeniable effect (whether it is their goal or otherwise) is to hollow out our ownership, control, and ability to sustain ourselves until we are no longer a threat to other world economic powers.