[Grovenet] Wars, Debt and Outsourcing

[Eric Canon]

Interestingly, this comes from the right.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury under Reagan administration; Associate
Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page;
and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is
coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.  He
writes:
 
April 25, 2006
Wars, Debt and Outsourcing 
The World is Uniting Against the Bush Imperium
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
 
Is the United States a superpower? I think not.
Consider these facts:
 
The financial position of the US has declined
dramatically. The US is heavily indebted, both
government and consumers. The US trade deficit
both in absolute size and as a percentage of GDP
is unprecedented, reaching more than $800 billion
in 2005 and accumulating to $4.5 trillion since
1990. With US job growth falling behind
population growth and with no growth in consumer
real incomes, the US economy is driven by
expanding consumer debt. Saving rates are low or
negative.
 
The federal budget is deep in the red, adding to
America's dependency on debt. The US cannot even
go to war unless foreigners are willing to
finance it.
 
Our biggest bankers are China and Japan, both of
whom could cause the US serious financial
problems if they wished. A country whose
financial affairs are in the hands of foreigners
is not a superpower.
 
The US is heavily dependent on imports for
manufactured goods, including advanced technology
products. In 2005 US dependency (in dollar
amounts) on imported manufactured goods was twice
as large as US dependency on imported oil. In the
21st century the US has experienced a rapid
increase in dependency on imports of advanced
technology products. A country dependent on
foreigners for manufactures and advanced
technology products is not a superpower.
 
Because of jobs offshoring and illegal
immigration, US consumers create jobs for
foreigners, not for Americans. Bureau of Labor
Statistics jobs reports document the loss of
manufacturing jobs and the inability of the US
economy to create jobs in categories other than
domestic "hands on" services. According to a
March 2006 report from the Center for Immigration
Studies, most of these jobs are going to
immigrants: "Between March 2000 and March 2005
only 9 percent of the net increase in jobs for
adults (18 to 64) went to natives. This is
striking because natives accounted for 61 percent
of the net increase in the overall size of the 18
to 64 year old population."
 
A country that cannot create jobs for its native
born population is not a superpower.
 
In an interview in the April 17 Manufacturing &
Technology News, former TCI and Global Crossing
CEO Leo Hindery said that the incentives of
globalization have disconnected US corporations
from US interests. "No economy," Hindery said,
"can survive the offshoring of both manufacturing
and services concurrently. In fact, no society
can even take excessive offshoring of
manufacturing alone." According to Hindery,
offshoring serves the short-term interests of
shareholders and executive pay at the long-term
expense of US economic strength.
 
Hindery notes that in 1981 the Business
Roundtable defined its constituency as employees,
shareholders, community, customers, and the
nation." Today the constituency is quarterly
earnings. A country whose business class has no
sense of the nation is not a superpower.
 
By launching a war of aggression on the basis of
lies and fabricated "intelligence," the Bush
regime violated the Nuremberg standard
established by the US and international law.
Extensive civilian casualties and infrastructure
destruction in Iraq, along with the torture of
detainees in concentration camps and an
ever-changing excuse for the war have destroyed
the soft power and moral leadership that provided
the diplomatic foundation for America's
superpower status.
 
A country that is no longer respected or trusted
and which promises yet more war isolates itself
from cooperation from the rest of the world. An
isolated country is not a superpower.
 
A country that fears small, distant countries to
such an extent that it utilizes military in place
of diplomatic means is not a superpower. The
entire world knows that the US is not a
superpower when its entire available military
force is tied down by a small lightly armed
insurgency drawn from a Sunni population of a
mere 5 million people.
 
Neoconservatives think the US is a superpower
because of its military weapons and nuclear
missiles. However, as the Iraqi resistance has
demonstrated, America's superior military
firepower is not enough to prevail in fourth
generation warfare. The Bush regime has reached
this conclusion itself, which is why it
increasing speaks of attacking Iran with nuclear
weapons.
 
The US is the only country to have used nuclear
weapons against an opponent. If six decades after
nuking Japan the US again resorts to the use of
nuclear weapons, it will establish itself as a
pariah, war criminal state under the control of
insane people. Any sympathy that might still
exist for the US would immediately disappear, and
the world would unite against America.
 
A country against which the world is united is
not a superpower.