Are people optimistic about the West/US/Europe?

[SpellAndShield]

When I look at what is happening across the Occident, I see decline. I see a decline that has many historical precedents and one that symbolically or otherwise, ends the rise to power and the maintenance thereof that began in the very late 15th century and went back and forth between different empires/nations jockeying for power. The West (specifically the US) is moribund and our vaunted leaders are not likely to be able to cook up another scheme to keep our false economy going. To be sure, life goes on but we are living in historical times....still, is anyone here optimistic about the future, given the horrific state of things these days?

[Kendo 2]

I'm not either. China is the rising star now. Within a decade, they will be ones calling the shots for the rest of the world.

[marharth]

The USA still has the strongest military force in the world, I am sure if the US gets pissed off enough it will do something.

[HappyHerring]

Most western military institutions are only as strong as the next few paydays. With no funds you have no capability.

 

Military capability cannot provide housing and utilise the skills and resources of the populace of any country even the cases of military/police states where the military is a significant percentage of both population & G.D.P. in the long run if the economy collapses, see North Korea as an illustration.

[marharth]

The us is already trillions of dollars in debt, its not like we have the money to spend but we still spend it on military.

 

Even without funding we are the strongest military force on the planet.

[Keanumoreira]

China's not going anywhere in the Next decade if they keep on the road they are going now. What with their overpopulation, extreme inflation, and goverment uphevil, the state will collapse until it reforms itself. No other nation on the planet is this unstable, and unless the chinese puts their brilliant minds together and focus on not just renewable energy, and healthcare concerns, we're going to see a national threat on our hands.

[JimboUK]

The west has been living beyond its means for decades, we've also become lazy and spoilt. The days where we could consume the vast majority of the world resources are coming to an end, if we want to maintain at least a decent standard of living we're going to have to compete with the east and that means working a lot harder.

 

The us is already trillions of dollars in debt, its not like we have the money to spend but we still spend it on military.

 

Even without funding we are the strongest military force on the planet.

 

Without funding you'll have no military at all, just look at the sad and sorry state of the UK military, a shadow of its former self thanks to underfunding.

[RZ1029]

I'm a cynical little ******* and since we all know one person represents an entire peoplegroup very well so I'd like to say, no. But in all seriousness, the US is pulling from its roots, whether for the better or worse isn't my decision to make. I don't like where it's headed, personally. Not ethically, not socially, not economically. The value of human life's just going out the door in the US. I don't know that crime is actually going up, but it just seems like it's so much worse. It's not just 'house was broken into and robbed'. It's 'house was broken into, woman was raped, man was shot, woman was killed. News at 11.' It's not just 'soldier died at war and his funeral was today.' It's 'soldier died at war and people showed up to protest the war, gay marriage, and harass the family at his funeral'. It's not 'we're running a little low on funds' it's 'we're so s__t deep that chances are we're just f____d and it's all the governments fault, our economy's going to pieces because of such and such and such and we're just going to keep seeing it degrade. Then they shell out another trillion or whatever in cash to all these companies that've been doing the bad business practices, blah blah blah. Capitalism, socialism, communism, yada yada.'

 

I'm also just one guy, though. Maybe not everyone's as negatively pissed off at the world as I am.

/deactivate ragemode, because I just realized how whiny that post sounded.

Edited January 16, 2011 by RZ1029

[marharth]

The west has been living beyond its means for decades, we've also become lazy and spoilt. The days where we could consume the vast majority of the world resources are coming to an end, if we want to maintain at least a decent standard of living we're going to have to compete with the east and that means working a lot harder.

 

The us is already trillions of dollars in debt, its not like we have the money to spend but we still spend it on military.

 

Even without funding we are the strongest military force on the planet.

 

Without funding you'll have no military at all, just look at the sad and sorry state of the UK military, a shadow of its former self thanks to underfunding.

The thing is, that's not true.

 

The USA does not have any funding for anything, we are trillions of dollars in debt.

 

We still have a military force though that is extremely strong.

[JimboUK]

The west has been living beyond its means for decades, we've also become lazy and spoilt. The days where we could consume the vast majority of the world resources are coming to an end, if we want to maintain at least a decent standard of living we're going to have to compete with the east and that means working a lot harder.

 

The us is already trillions of dollars in debt, its not like we have the money to spend but we still spend it on military.

 

Even without funding we are the strongest military force on the planet.

 

Without funding you'll have no military at all, just look at the sad and sorry state of the UK military, a shadow of its former self thanks to underfunding.

The thing is, that's not true.

 

The USA does not have any funding for anything, we are trillions of dollars in debt.

 

We still have a military force though that is extremely strong.

 

It still has funding, it's just funded through borrowing.