Website review: charles hugh smith-The U.S.A.: The ...
barrelhead discovered this in Politics
•8 reviews since Apr 16, 2008
politics
•oftwominds.com/blogapr08/USA-TW.html
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Reviews of this website
JesseMat rated 3 weeks ago- Put this all together and what do you have? A nation which clearly shares key characteristics with oft-maligned Third World "basketcase" nations which are wallowing in debt, unfilled potholes, overflowing prisons and declining public-sector services.
Does that mean the U.S. is a Third World state? Of course not; but the above trends should raise our collective awareness of the risks ahead.- Put this all together and what do you have? A nation which clearly shares key characteristics with oft-maligned Third World "basketcase" nations which are wallowing in debt, unfilled potholes, overflowing prisons and declining public-sector services.
- dtanner89 rated 5 weeks ago
- jon-enthea is right, and I'm giving this a thumbs-up so that others can read his comments. Although I will say that if you drive through some parts of Detroit (where I'm from) or, better yet, the Mississippi Delta, you'll find some people living in conditions that would make third-world officials blush. The USA is being squeezed right now because we have grown accustomed to a higher standard of living than this country can support. America is in a period of transition right now. The sooner people realize this, the better.
- Gracey rated 2 months ago
- It's a hard notion to stomach, that the USA has become the first Third World Superpower, almost to the point of being insulting, but reality is sometimes insulting, offensive, and hard to accept. And sadly, your denial of acceptance does not negate the truth, it just makes you blind to the pitfalls.
- raindrop rated 2 months ago
- We are much more unequal than any other advanced industrial country.
- lunaticprophet rated 2 months ago
- U.S.A.: The Third World's First Superpower From the page: "To those of you currently ensconsed in quiet, comfortable suburban America, the notion that the U.S. shares a number of disturbing traits with Third World countries might seem implausible or even insulting. But please read on before passing judgment. Here are some key traits the U.S. shares with Third World nations--trends which are only growing more visible with each passing month: 1. Income and wealth inequality. One of the defining characteristics of Third World countries is extremes of income and wealth; a relative handful of families/elites control most of the property, wealth and "means of production" (wealth generating assets) while the majority of citizens own and earn essentially nothing. Here in the U.S. it's not that visibly extreme, but facts are facts: a relative handful own the vast majority of key wealth-producing assets: The Growing Gap in the United States Between the Rich and the Rest
- There is also another measure called the Gini coefficient. It measures the concentration of wealth at different percentile levels, and does an overall computation. It is an index that goes from zero to one, one being the most unequal. Wealth inequality in the United States has a Gini coefficient of .82, which is pretty close to the maximum level of inequality you can have.
A household in the middle -- the median household -- has wealth of about $62,000. $62,000 is not insignificant, but if you consider that the top 1 percent of households' average wealth is $12.5 million, you can see what a difference there is in the distribution.
Things are even more concentrated if you exclude owner-occupied housing. It is nice to own a house and it provides all kinds of benefits, but it is not very liquid. You can't really dispose of it, because you need some place to live.
The top 1 percent of families hold half of all non-home wealth.
The middle class's major assets are their home, liquid assets like checking and savings accounts, CDs and money market funds, and pension accounts. For the average family, these assets make up 84 percent of their total wealth.
The richest 10 percent of families own about 85 percent of all outstanding stocks. They own about 85 percent of all financial securities, 90 percent of all business assets. These financial assets and business equity are even more concentrated than total wealth.
We are much more unequal than any other advanced industrial country."
- U.S.A.: The Third World's First Superpower From the page: "To those of you currently ensconsed in quiet, comfortable suburban America, the notion that the U.S. shares a number of disturbing traits with Third World countries might seem implausible or even insulting. But please read on before passing judgment. Here are some key traits the U.S. shares with Third World nations--trends which are only growing more visible with each passing month: 1. Income and wealth inequality. One of the defining characteristics of Third World countries is extremes of income and wealth; a relative handful of families/elites control most of the property, wealth and "means of production" (wealth generating assets) while the majority of citizens own and earn essentially nothing. Here in the U.S. it's not that visibly extreme, but facts are facts: a relative handful own the vast majority of key wealth-producing assets: The Growing Gap in the United States Between the Rich and the Rest
- PassionatePuppy rated 2 months ago
- The U.S.A.: The Third World's First Superpower
- Infojnkee rated 2 months ago
- . The U.S.A.: The Third World's First Superpower From the page: "To those of you currently ensconced in quiet, comfortable suburban America, the notion that the U.S. shares a number of disturbing traits with Third World countries might seem implausible or even insulting. But please read on before passing judgment." .
