Are We Going Down Like the Soviets?

Found this article to be quite interesting. I thought some of you might find it informative as well.

Clickity

reply to post by ovenden


I feel the U.S. is slowly dying an agonizing death
and no one even seems to care.Oh well, it was fun
while it lasted.

No country last forever. I would be surprised if the United States did fall apart from the greedy power of our leaders. The only way to save the United States is another Progressive Era.

The amazing part for me was the insight into the amount of money poured into the American Military. I always knew that the U.S had a large budget for their military, I guess I had never thought about it as indepth as this before. The similarities drawn between the Soviets and the USA are quite remarkable. Very good article.

I thought this part hit the nail on the head:

But here was the strange thing. In the midst of the Great Recession, under a new president with assumedly far fewer illusions about American omnipotence and power, war policy continued to expand in just about every way. The Pentagon budget rose by Bushian increments in fiscal year 2010; and while the Iraq War reached a kind of dismal stasis, the new president doubled down in Afghanistan on entering office -- and then doubled down again before the end of 2009. There, he “surged” in multiple ways. At best, the U.S. was only drawing down one war, in Iraq, to feed the flames of another.

reply to post by ovenden


The U.S military is given more money then many other countries with large armies.

Peoples Republic of China

Annual military budget: $103.9 billion (2005 estimate)

Compared to the U.S

United States of America

Annual military budget: $481.4 billion (FY 2008 estimate)

America in its 'death throws' reminds me of the Roman empire, all its legions fighting 'abroad' rigged elections, food shortages, its just the history of the Roman empire brought up to date.

reply to post by pikestaff


Early American politics were influenced by the Greeks and Latins.

reply to post by pikestaff


I had never thought of it that way. I agree with that comparison, kind of eerie really....

Decline happens the same way in every society that attempts to be an expansionist Empire. The government grows so large that it eats the fruits of the people's labor until it, and the society it helped build, collapses into a black hole.

It's worked the same way since the dawn of empires on this Earth.

[edit on 21-6-2010 by Lunatic Pandora]

[edit on 21-6-2010 by Lunatic Pandora]

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


You really have to stop even considering the military expenditure figures. Here is why:

1. China's data is unreliable; there is no way to check it. For sure they are spending much more, and the figures don't include the transfer of America's best military hardware and technology which was what was done with Russia (see Anthony Sutton's books on-line) and what is now being continued with China.

2. American data is unreliable seeing as the same people who are transferring America's military secrets to China are the same ones who own the major defence companies - how much of that money is really spent on what they say it is and how much goes into people's pockets do you think? Hint : 'undocumentable' adjustments....

Every time I see people bragging on these boards about how powerful the United States are, the sole superpower and bla-bla-bla...it makes me cringe.

Whilst you all bask in your superior expenditure, the enemy is almost ready to strike. Seeing as they will be assisted by traitors from within your own government I fear there is a rude awakening coming your way.

Slightly off-topic, sorry but I couldn't help it...you really need to wake up.

Originally posted by Lunatic Pandora
Decline happens the same way in every society that attempts to be an expansionist Empire. The government grows so large that it eats the fruits of the people's labor until it, and the society it helped build, collapses into a black hole.

It's worked the same way since the dawn of empires on this Earth.

Exactly, every empire falls eventually.

The fun part is trying to guess when it will happen.

It always strikes me as odd how our leaders never learn from past governments mistakes.

I agree with your hypothesis. The USSR went down because Ronnie spent them into bankruptcy. Good ploy. It worked. The difference this time is that the elite, the corporations are the impetus of this problem. Not an outside force. Yes the US is going to go down but more like Rome than the USSR. Decline from within.

Interesting find. I don't agree that we're going down like the Soviets at all. Their trouble was too many satellite countries who never really bought into the union...were forced to endure under all that military control. Maybe more like Rome. I agree about the plutocracy. It's what we've become. The country belongs to the corporations with the government as their henchman, particularly the military in the middle east, and what the military isn't handling (you know...that sticky stuff on the line of all that's good that this country still somewhat stands for), the private military contractors do. And that seems to be stemming from a very concerning dominionist place, which is another huge concern. Naw, I don't think we're going down like the Soviets. We're going to find our own very unique way of doing it. And getting out of it. Hopefully bloodlessly, with innovation and a different kind of revolution. like real people of the 21st century. *crossing fingers

Go down like Russia ! Not a chance

it's going to be a massive implosion that will take in the western world just so they can get you on the amero and so you can have your own personal carbon tax.

Did you know that about ten years ago Russia went to the IMF and asked if it could pay back its loan early ? The zionist controlled IMF said no.

Russia only ows $50bn total which is nothing.

If the £ or Euro or $ goes under then because they are cross linked means that they all sink togeather and the only question is in the timing and i think we could see it within a year.

The good thing about a depression is it has people queuing up to join the army witch has nothing to do with being patrotic but every thing to do with it's the only job going and if you look at the 1930 then this is just what happened.

Interesting points.

I posted a video where some of these topics are discussed, its a great video and I wish more people would watch it.

Set thine house in order

reply to post by ThaLoccster


Thanks for posting the video. Very interesting

Using very basic, very generalized math I came up with this based on data from wikipedia:

2,932,400 active and reserve military members

131,543,000 tax returns filed in 2009 (less than one third of the total population, about the same number of people who voted in 2008.)

$692,000,000,000 DoD budget for FY 2010

$235,984.18 (est) spent per military member

$5,260.64 (est) cost to taxpayer for each military member

It's interesting how some people can demand lower taxes while at the same time imploring their government to keep spending money on our military. Alan Grayson has it right on, stop feeding the military-industrial monster.

Nice article none-the-less.

I think we are only going down if we believe that we are.

If more people start thinking optimistically we will start rise above all this.

Thought is power, every thing around started as a thought.

This website, your computer, your clothes, your home, the music you are listening, everything starts with a thought.

Everyone please keep that in mind in these times.