Americas best days behind us?

Sooo i was reading my times magazine and found these two articles. Kinda funny since they were back-to-back.

So far this article is PRO for decline:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2056610,00.html

And this one is CON for decline:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2056582,00.html

Im somewhat stuck inbetween with agreeing on these two. Both do make good pointz. I won't spoil anything; opinions?

The second article sickens me. The first article is less extreme on what it addresses.

The Pro article writer seems to have his head up his ass and is liking the smell of his own shit. Guy is seriously in lala land. Typical egotistical American mentality "har har har my country is the best because.... BECAUSE!!". The second writer who did the Con piece is much more realistic and seemingly on target.

This pretty sums up the downfall of the US:

A crucial aspect of beginning to turn things around would be for the U.S. to make an honest accounting of where it stands and what it can learn from other countries. This kind of benchmarking is common among businesses but is sacrilege for the country as a whole. Any politician who dares suggest that the U.S. can learn from — let alone copy — other countries is likely to be denounced instantly. If someone points out that Europe gets better health care at half the cost, that's dangerously socialist thinking. If a business leader notes that tax rates in much of the industrialized world are lower and that there are far fewer loopholes than in the U.S., he is brushed aside as trying to impoverish American workers. If a commentator says — correctly — that social mobility from one generation to the next is greater in many European nations than in the U.S., he is laughed at. Yet several studies, the most recent from the OECD last year, have found that the average American has a much lower chance of moving out of his parents' income bracket than do people in places like Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Canada.

Think you got it backwards Champ.

Nope. You probably didn't read the entire paragraph and only read the first sentence.

No, i mean i think you switched Pro and Con guy. the Pro guy is not overly patriot, he is saying this country IS wrong and NEEDS changing. the Con guy is the one who is viewing americas future as positive and all that. In fact, the PRO guy churns out A LOT MORE factual arguments then the CON guy who seems to be spouting vague statements and statistics.

rofl. these articles are written like america is an everlasting flame. I love the tittle "dont be against the us." "most Americans operate on the assumption that the U.S. is still No. 1." facepalm.


"What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and '60s: the interstate-highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies."
jesus christ. misinformation after misinformation. the "american economy" is exploitation. why does this guy pretend like the 1940s dont matter? in the 1940s america forced the japenese to build(without pay) all sorts of things. Damns, roads, installed telephone poles etc. (From the concentration camps we set up in america during ww2.) During the vietnamese war american companys in texas alone earned over 200 billion+ dollars(thats a lot consider a mcdonalds cheeseburder at the time cost 25 cents). America exploited vietnams tin,rubber,an oil industry's(even their gold mines). If we are trying to seek that same kind of economic state of mind..... count. me. out.

All empires, no matter how large, or ever spanding will ALWAYS have a downfall, the USA's downfall was set in motion by GWB and now Obama has 3 Trillion dollars of debt to pick up, it won't matter who you vote in, the time for the American Empire has finished, China is the new super power now