Why aren't other countries rich like the US?

reply to post by Donnie Darko



Not an opinion with nothing to back it up.
You said richer than us. Not GDP.

Richer.


[edit on 3-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

I've lived in NY/ LA / Baltimore I know how the rich live. I'm not one of them. They waste money like other people breath.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by Donnie Darko

 

Not an opinion with nothing to back it up.
You said richer than us. Not GDP.

Richer.

[edit on 3-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

Oh okay.

Well that has to do with our area, our location on the very lush North American continent, the fact we haven't been plundered since we plundered the Native Americans, our "success" in World War 2, etc.

As noted by a previous poster, we have enough natural resources to sustain ourselves.

And we are advanced enough to manage them.

Some places, like Africa, may have abundant natural resources, but lack the management skills and educated populace to take advantage of what is under their own feet. They still live a nomadic lifestyle, and murder each other by the millions.

Forget some silly chart comparing us with Qatar. It does not look at the entire picture.

The problem with Africa was they got so oppressed that they had a bunch of kids and not enough farmland to support them (very little of Africa is farmland), plus Africa has an irregular climate, so when a drought or flood comes, they are SCREWED.

Originally posted by mopusvindictusEven if we go bankrupt we will be "rich" very quickly because we will still Possess the actual wealth.

We will own most of the actual wealth?

You must mean the handful of corporations that own a majority of the food producing land in the US or the handful of corporations that own most of the mineral rights in the US.

You are right that if the US goes bankrupt, international corporations will still be "rich" because they own a majority of the wealth producing capabilities of this country. The problem is that the citizens of the country are only slowly discovering that they are rent-slaves. We own nothing of any real value and yet we work hard to keep it.

Jon

reply to post by Donnie Darko


ermm...The Netherlands

Americans as a whole work longer hours, put in more effort, and therefore make more per person. Last bit of research on this I read said we come in second only to Norway, who work a little harder and longer. Many other countries do not have 40 hour work weeks as the standard, there's usually more free time, mid day siestas, and such, so they do not produce as much in goods, or work performed.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by Redneck from Hell

 

Well first off stop watching reality TV and Pro wrestling.

Start watching the news. You know the channels with the guy in a suit and tie sitting behind a desk that's talking like a grown up. You probably keep channel surfing by them to get to the next NASCAR race.

You want people to start watching the mainstream news?

I would never recommend anyone to ever do that...

Sometimes I switch over to them for comedy value though.

Originally posted by Voxel

Originally posted by mopusvindictusEven if we go bankrupt we will be "rich" very quickly because we will still Possess the actual wealth.

We will own most of the actual wealth?

You must mean the handful of corporations that own a majority of the food producing land in the US or the handful of corporations that own most of the mineral rights in the US.

You are right that if the US goes bankrupt, international corporations will still be "rich" because they own a majority of the wealth producing capabilities of this country. The problem is that the citizens of the country are only slowly discovering that they are rent-slaves. We own nothing of any real value and yet we work hard to keep it.

Jon

If you have a society that is unlimited capitalism, you get corporations out of control who just want to get bigger and bigger until they own the entire planet. And you become inofficial slaves.

Capitalism is great in the beginning when everybody is starting out on the same playing field. After a while, it becomes a cancer on the planet though, raping the planet for resources, and paying workers as little as humanly possible to keep things going.


[edit on 3-8-2009 by Copernicus]

I have 3 questions.


1 - How in the world are corporations gonna " own " the US should everything fall the way it has to in order for them to make their move? Can't people just say **** off lets restart this game?

2 - When people say the US in in a hole and is full of dept, to whom does the US has dept too? Who profits from this dept? Can't the US just tell the guy " hey, I think I'm not gonna pay you, **** off ".????

3 - This is how I view this whole economic mess. We are all children that have decided to play house, and we created our fake money. Now we allowed our neighboor to play house with us, and he made a corporation. We ended up owing him, and we have decided to continue playing the game and starve. When all along we could have said " ok, lets do over, we all start the game over Jimmy ". Anyone else agree?


Please adreess my three questions, Thank you very much guys.

[edit on 4-8-2009 by Redneck from Hell]

[edit on 4-8-2009 by Redneck from Hell]

It's always been about power and greed. If we start all over, it's just a matter of time before things get screwed up again. Don't mean to be all doom and gloom, but it doesn't appear as though humanity has evolved far enough to know that human lives are more important than power and greed.

The slave trade laid the foundations for capitalism, and stimulated the economic wealth of Europe and America. New systems of controlling money were introduced due to the infrastructure of the slave trade, mainly changes in banking and insurance.

This in turn devastated the economy of 'third world' countries (they weren't actually 'third world' yet). So then came the wealthy western exploiters to take advantage of their low economy, to make more money by exploiting their resources. Both the resources and the wealth went back to the west. This in turn destroyed the economy of the third world, and again stimulated wealth in the west.

Without this accumulation of wealth the two world wars would probably have not happened, or if they did they would have been a lot shorter and less devastating on Europe. But this was good for America who had the wealth and resources to hire out, at a price, their equipment and men to 'help' out Europe. The US made a killing from WWII, and made it the financial super power it was, for a while. But the rest of the world is catching up...fast. The only way for America to stop this is to go to war again, or try to stimulate other countries to go to war so the US can step in and exploit the war financially. Man power is not a scarce resource for the US, so they can afford to lose a few in it's numerous wars for cash.

Anyway my 2c, and not the whole or complete story...

It might have something to do with international patents. The United States has a lot of patents both domestic and international. Japan actually leads in the number of patents filed.

World Patent Report: A Statistical Review (2008):
www.wipo.int...

What are the most important resources you guys speak of? Doesn't the Earth have a limited amount of them, so what happens when it ends.

Companies drill for oil without stop, doesn't the Earth run out of oil after a while? We've been here for quite some time drilling that oil.