[Grovenet] Our role in the world

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I hadn't heard that quote. Thanks! There may be a lot of truth in it as
well.

We Americans are living really "high on the hog" as my Grandma used to say,
meaning we're used to getting the best of everything. 

For a long time we could afford it. The lands we occupied yielded fantastic
wealth that helped build this country and, in the process, made Americans
the richest people in the world. 

But that wealth has dwindled to a trickle while we grew lazy, thinking that
others could do the hard work, whether that was designing a more efficient
automobile, building our new HD TV sets or even building the ships to haul
that stuff to our shores. 

Secure in the fantasy that American schools where the best in the world, we
didn't notice that other schools throughout the world were producing
graduates capable of surpassing our grads, and they did so. Meanwhile, those
US students who had the fortitude to finish college graduated with huge
debts that must be paid by their employers in the form of higher salaries
and so by the consumers in the form of higher prices for those goods and
services Americans still provide. 

While that was developing, the cost of living here in the USA has
skyrocketed so that very few Americans can hold a job and provide for a
family, even with a college education. Now it takes two adults working in
most cases, and those adults have to work a huge number of hours. 

So it's little wonder to me that America takes what it can get away with
from other nations. But that won't work forever. Maybe 9/11 was really
signaling the end of American "imperialism" as it was viewed outside of our
borders. And when it ends, we'll learn what it's like to live on fraction of
our current incomes. 

Maybe it'll be a good lesson to learn, but that doesn't make it something to
look forward to. 

Ron D'Eau Claire 



-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of JBlair2154 at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 7:04 PM
To: grovenet at rdrop.com
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Our role in the world


 
In a message dated 12/24/2006 2:01:31 PM Central Standard Time,  
grovenet-request at rdrop.com writes:

I  believe that what America needs to leave behind today is our "go it
alone" attitude. It's as obsolete and unproductive as isolationism was in
1900. 



In a recent interview, Barack Obama noted that many of us tend to  think
that 
our "only choice is between isolationism or belligerence," and that  we need

to get away from that kind of thinking. As usual, I agree with the  Senator 
from Illinois.
(smile)
Joy
Merry Christmas to all!
 


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