On The Outside Looking In

There is no better way to see the where the United States is headed than looking from outside of the US in. From this vantage point you can clearly see the reversal of fortunes for millions of Americans not just in the first months of the Trump Administration but from years of disingenuous policies from both Democratic and Republican Administrations. Thru the years the disproportion of wealth has accelerated the greatest disparity of incomes in our nation's history. This disparity has unleashed a torrent of adverse effects that have surrendered the United States capability of achieving the economic success that propelled Americas economic dominance we had following World War II.

Ever since the early 1970's when Nixon took us off the gold standard the dollar has steadily eroded the financial stability of our nation. As a result, millions of Americans have continued to lose the buying power they once had under the gold standard. The inflationary trends we are seeing today are two-fold. One is a result of the demise of the gold standard and two what Trump has instigated with his imposed tariffs. Both have reduced the economic and financial fortunes for millions of Americans.

In the last 50 years the US has undergone a seismic shift in our society. A most profound cultural, social and demographic realignment that has had enormous impacts on our nation's future. The decisions from Administrations, Congress, and the Supreme Court past and present have all had a hand in what the rest of the world is seeing.

Today many nations especially our allies now look with distain on what Trump has imposed, trying to do and the relationships he is fostering. Some might say when America played the Trump card for the second time America lost. That brings us back to how this nation that was founded on four basic principles of Liberty, Justice, Morality, and Education to where we are as a nation today.

When you are looking at the United States from the perspective of an outsider looking at the history of just the past 55 years in America, we see the cracks that began forming. The were made thru the decisions that were meant to fix what was already working only to have that fix benefit not the public in general but create a ruling class elite that are now controlling practically every aspect of our society today.

The erosion of our founding principles that began in the early 1970's especially in education has triggered a domino effect to where we have had a generational decline in the education of our populace. There are many other factors that are all related to why other nations now look at America with the realization the United States is no longer capable of being that beacon of hope for the rest of the world.

Now the question is this: can the United States recover from years of slow decay and become that beacon of hope once again for nations around the world? That remains to be seen. That first step though back into global relevancy begins by transforming government back to the people and implementing a sound economic and financial plan for the future. A plan that restores the stability and financial security for all.

The United States hasn't had a definitive plan for this nation's future since John F Kennedy back in 1960. Ever since the late 60's the US has been sinking lower economically, financially and socially not focusing on the future prosperity and economic futures for the majority of Americans. Instead, what government has been focusing on is the financial enrichment of corporations and government officials.

We forgot the lessons history is supposed to teach us. And in doing so we have repeated the historic implications of what Teddy Roosevelt was up against. Today we have let major corporations to hold vast monopiles that are strangling the very financial and economic future for millions of hard-working Americans.

To right the wrongs imposed upon Americans there must be a plan of direction that nictitates the enforcement of Anti-Trust laws and correspond with National Economic Reform with its Ten Articles of Unification. When both are implemented they will actively promote and propel the United States back from the abyss of irrelevancy in the eyes of the world and provide the economic and financial stability for generations. This is the first step to ensure global peace.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

ArishMell · 70-79, M

I am a bit confused. Where are you?

You say from "outside" but use American spellings like "thru", and the words "our", "we" and "us", so I take it you are an American as your profile says, but either living in another country or with an unusual ability to step back and examine what is happening around you within America.

So I respect your analysis as how you see the present condition of the United States of America, as by a writer who knows the country and does want it to be stable and successful.

However, I am not convinced that will help ensure "world peace" because the USA does not and can not run the world, despite spending the last fifty years or so trying to do just that.

Much of the first half of that time was spent in facing Communist imperialism, from the USSR and in Asia although at the time China was mainly preoccupied with her internal development and her own, appalling misjudgments in that.

Since then, the world has changed considerably. I see:-

- USSR metamorphosing into the hard-Right-wing, Russian Federation now run by an ex-KBG die-hard who resents the loss of the USSR's European empire,

- the still-Communist, expansionist People's Republic of China jockeying with strongly Right-wing, capitalist United States of America to be the world's Top Dog economically and politically,

- Middle Eastern theocracies scrapping over sectarian differences and territories but largely regarding "the West" as a common political and cultural enemy,

- Israel acting too big for her own good, thus encouraging groups like Hamas and their ruthless, anti-Western, anti-Israeli backers including Iran,

- various guerilla movements like ISIS trying to exploit all this strife for their own ends, including a dream of hard-line, worldwide theocracy; and being civilian guerillas largely immune at large scale to conventional war tactics - the losers are the populace in the way,

- peculiar alignments of theoretically opponents against their perceived common enemies (China + Afghanistan, China + Russia, Russia + Iran, America + Saudi Arabia, UK + Saudi Arabia, etc.),

- a mish-mash of small, unstable, mainly dictatorial countries like some of the African and South American ones; many now in financial and political thrall to China; and

- even democratic(ish) blocs like the European Union with somewhat protectionist import controls (yes these affect my country, the UK, too).

So the growth of major ideologies, most totally at odds with that of the USA (and "The West" generally), and with each other. Worse, some of those powers' strengths have been a response to, or been encouraged by, those decades of the USA trying to tell them what to do in all sorts of ways; and not always in the most diplomatic manner.

So while I agree with your analysis and desire that the USA must address her own, serious internal difficulties, and should be prosperous and happy; I am afraid that ideal will not have much effect on all those lands beyond the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

She may be able to sort herself out, but cannot run the increasingly fractured and fractious world.

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

@ArishMell First, I thought he might be an emigrant who retired elsewhere even though his profile still identifies him as being from the US. But then again, his profile says he is a free-lance writer, and a good writer is able to project themself outside their environment and view it from outside.

Second, while I agree with most of your points, I don't think they negate his argument. It is a nasty world out there -- as it always has been. And I think we had a far better impact on it when we were coming from a higher moral place -- introducing the concept of free public education to the world, removing the cannons from the U.S.S. Constitution to load it to the brim with grain for starving Ireland, welcoming immigrants into the hard-to-fill entry-level jobs going begging rather than proposing to sell H-1-B visas to the highly-educated because we didn't educate our own -- rather than attempting to police the world as Bully-in-Charge. Which has generated a major chunk of that $40 Trillion deficit, along with the "trickle down" tax cuts and subsidies to the oligarchs that never get around to trickling.

And speaking of viewing it from outside, it wias President Eisenhower, in his farewell address, who spent a good chunk of his productive years in Europe overseeing a war, who warned us about the Military-Industrial Complex he saw developing in post-war America that viewed continual war, selling arms to allies, meddling in other country's affairs as something to be monetized. Rather than focusing on continuing to improve American infrastructure and social programs.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@dancingtongue So what went wrong then for all those later developments? What you decribe there would have been over many governments of both parties. The oligarchs gaining far to much influence?

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

@ArishMell Yep. Neither party was free of--or had a patent on--the hawkish demagoguery, imho.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@dancingtongue That's politics, I suppose....