savethehumans wrote:It's easy to think of the US in the worst possible ways--because they ARE the worst of the worst when it comes to consumption, ecocide, imperial ambitions and wars--you name it!
Reap what you sow, you know. . . .
agni wrote:savethehumans wrote:It's easy to think of the US in the worst possible ways--because they ARE the worst of the worst when it comes to consumption, ecocide, imperial ambitions and wars--you name it!
Reap what you sow, you know. . . .
Ecocide? WTF is that?
-A
Given that each of those examples is perfectly appropriate to the issue being mentioned, the interesting issue is why the USA tops the lists.gt1370a wrote:I find it interesting that people alternately look at things in terms of per capita or as a percent GDP, as it best suits them. Either way, it is always done to portray the US in the worst possible way.
"The US uses the most oil per capita."
"The US gave the least money per GDP to tsunami victims."
"The US pollutes the most per capita."
MD wrote:China's well prepared response to the outcry over CINOOC's bid for Unocal pointed to the "unfair" 25% consumption to 6% population ratio currently enjoyed by the Unted States.
Hugo Chavez has also repeatedly pointed to the out-of-balance consumption in the US as "unfair" and "excessive".
I believe this will be a growing cry worldwide as depletion takes hold, eventually leading to embargos against the United States by various producers and cartels, both existing and newly formed.
I doubt China will support embargos, at least not yet. They will likely continue to try and win the "new great game" by slowly gathering resources and manufacturing power. If the world economy tips into severe recession though, all bets are off.
wisconsin_cur wrote:I am trying to give voice to realism. See it as a sign of whatever you want, I call it living with the fact that we are all homo sapiens and if it were the Chinese or the French or Botswanians using a disproportionate amount of resources than they would be doing the same thing.
I do get tired of the America bashing, as if any other group of homo sapiens would do any different if the situations were reversed.
We all love the Dutch for their enlightened attitudes, how quickly we forget how hard they tried to hold onto Indonesia
The French, they're good guys right? They oppose American hegemony. How soon we forget Algeria and Vietnam.
Do I really need to catalog all of the tribal ways homosapiens treat and mistreat one another for political and economic advantage?
Yes Americans are human beings and we do not live up to our best ideals.
Yes we use more than "our fair share" of resources just like any one else would given the chance because
[align=center]NEWS FLASH [/align]
they are human beings too.
As human beings we tend to look at those who want to take away our ice cream as enemies, even if we have more than our fair share of ice cream.
And some people have more than their fair share of self-righteousness and I would love to take it away from them.
look we live in a real world and the op dealt with how america might be blockaded in the future by a coalition of the disenfranchised. I think that would be hard to do because Americans... like every other tribe on the stupid planet... resist when they are opposed. I think America would be able to effectively resist those it perceives as "enemies."
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
MD wrote:America is losing access to imports a little bit at a time, mostly through economic distress and falling dollar.
There may never be any explicitly expressed embargoes against America. Nevertheless, I stand by my OP of nearly three years ago: America will lose access to its lion's share of oil that has been enjoyed for the last fifty years or so.
Kiss your energy slaves goodbye!
Don't you ever get tired of the facts? They are so dang inconvenient!
This is what humans have been doing ever since there was such a thing and feeling ever since the 2.5 pounds of gray matter we carry on top of our necks has been capable of an existential crisis.
MD wrote:The squeeze is in progress. Having fun yet, America?
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