Americans got this way because we've encouraged it in our culture since at least Reaganism and arguably since the 1950's. We exchanged the hardiness that got us into our position on the world stage for decadence via the conspicuous consumption of hyper-capitalism. We worshipped the rich and gave them tax breaks so they could live large a…
Americans got this way because we've encouraged it in our culture since at least Reaganism and arguably since the 1950's. We exchanged the hardiness that got us into our position on the world stage for decadence via the conspicuous consumption of hyper-capitalism. We worshipped the rich and gave them tax breaks so they could live large and we could worship them as our decadent idols. We sent the manufacturing jobs overseas so that we could buy things cheaper at the expense of our jobs not paying well. We killed the unions and raised up the corporations. We built the shareholder class by killing the working and middle classes. We got rid of the draft and farmed out our conflict-fighting to a small sliver of the country while everyone else went to the mall for 20 years. We're a culture no longer defined by the patriotism of "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." We're a culture now defined by the decadence of "ask not what the rich can do for your country, ask what your country can do for the rich."
Voltaire once said that "history is filled with the sound of silken slippers going down the stairs and wooden clogs coming up them." Guess who's going through that silken slipper phase right now.
"We exchanged the hardiness that got us into our position on the world stage"
Not 'hardiness;' 'slavery and ethnic cleaning.' We lucked into one of the most fertile and resource-rich places on the planet at a time when the people who had been living here were too weak to keep us from dispossessing and murdering them, and then we used slaves from Africa on plantations and the wretched of Europe and Asia in factories and public works projects to throw the economy into overdrive. Then we were the only ones that hadn't been bombed into dust as part of the greatest atrocity in human history.
This may seem like a subject change or a quibble, but it's not. Part of the reason we're so decadent is because we think what we have came to us as part of some birthright bought by our titan ancestors, instead of being the result of constant and often dubious work.
"Not 'hardiness;' 'slavery and ethnic cleaning.' We lucked into one of the most fertile and resource-rich places on the planet at a time when the people who had been living here were too weak to keep us from dispossessing and murdering them, and then we used slaves from Africa on plantations and the wretched of Europe and Asia in factories and public works projects to throw the economy into overdrive. Then we were the only ones that hadn't been bombed into dust as part of the greatest atrocity in human history."
I won't deny this one bit, but that's what made us a *regional* power. We emerged as a global power after 1945, and that was mostly because we waited until 1941 to get involved (not by choice) and only really got fully involved come 1943 when Germany and Japan had already exhausted themselves in fighting and had their logistical supply lines stretched out. We only really fought in WW2 in earnest from about 1943-1945, but we came out of it on top of the world. Then you had Bretton-Woods and the US being the only unscathed large scale economy in the world as Asia and Europe laid in ashes while the US mainland was left unscathed at a time when we had our domestic production in full swing to support the war efforts. THAT is what made us a global power rather than a regional one. We also had the most intact standing army leftover having suffered "merely" 50,000 casualties in a global war that took the lives of over 50 million.
The United States suffered at least 291,557 battlefield combat deaths in WW2, and at least an additional 113,842 military personnel deaths from other causes than direct combat.
We did not casually waste our soldiers' lives as the Soviet Union did, and of course we had far fewer civilian casualties than the countries fought upon, but it was no picnic. That second category being notably smaller than the first is the reason WW2 ranks below the Civil War, when two-thirds of military deaths were from disease and other privations.
We did lose a lot of people but our national infrastructure didn’t get absolutely demolished the way that most European and Asian countries did. And our body count was less than 1% of the total kill count for the war (<500k American KIAs vs more than 50M worldwide). That put us in an extremely advantageous position once the conflict was finished in terms of economics and military power.
I'm even more concerned about the generation of Americans growing up with Social Media, smartphones, and MAGA/Trump as "normal". My parents' generation still had parents and grandparents with farms. So many of them had farms! Now, there's like 4 guys in Ohio that work the fields to pay the loans for the farming equipment they have to buy (and aren't allowed to fix).
The corporations own a lot of the farms now too in addition to the farming equipment and the rights to repair that equipment. What happened to American manufacturing happened to American farms. The shareholders and banks own that one now too. Besides, how you gonna keep em down on the farm when the decadence of the city and suburbs are calling.
Here where I am in OH...we still actually have quite a few privately owned farms, it is pretty cool. especailly the stand with fruits and veggies at reasonable prices
Americans got this way because we've encouraged it in our culture since at least Reaganism and arguably since the 1950's. We exchanged the hardiness that got us into our position on the world stage for decadence via the conspicuous consumption of hyper-capitalism. We worshipped the rich and gave them tax breaks so they could live large and we could worship them as our decadent idols. We sent the manufacturing jobs overseas so that we could buy things cheaper at the expense of our jobs not paying well. We killed the unions and raised up the corporations. We built the shareholder class by killing the working and middle classes. We got rid of the draft and farmed out our conflict-fighting to a small sliver of the country while everyone else went to the mall for 20 years. We're a culture no longer defined by the patriotism of "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." We're a culture now defined by the decadence of "ask not what the rich can do for your country, ask what your country can do for the rich."
Voltaire once said that "history is filled with the sound of silken slippers going down the stairs and wooden clogs coming up them." Guess who's going through that silken slipper phase right now.
Love the Voltaire quote
It's a favorite of mine.
"We exchanged the hardiness that got us into our position on the world stage"
Not 'hardiness;' 'slavery and ethnic cleaning.' We lucked into one of the most fertile and resource-rich places on the planet at a time when the people who had been living here were too weak to keep us from dispossessing and murdering them, and then we used slaves from Africa on plantations and the wretched of Europe and Asia in factories and public works projects to throw the economy into overdrive. Then we were the only ones that hadn't been bombed into dust as part of the greatest atrocity in human history.
This may seem like a subject change or a quibble, but it's not. Part of the reason we're so decadent is because we think what we have came to us as part of some birthright bought by our titan ancestors, instead of being the result of constant and often dubious work.
"Not 'hardiness;' 'slavery and ethnic cleaning.' We lucked into one of the most fertile and resource-rich places on the planet at a time when the people who had been living here were too weak to keep us from dispossessing and murdering them, and then we used slaves from Africa on plantations and the wretched of Europe and Asia in factories and public works projects to throw the economy into overdrive. Then we were the only ones that hadn't been bombed into dust as part of the greatest atrocity in human history."
I won't deny this one bit, but that's what made us a *regional* power. We emerged as a global power after 1945, and that was mostly because we waited until 1941 to get involved (not by choice) and only really got fully involved come 1943 when Germany and Japan had already exhausted themselves in fighting and had their logistical supply lines stretched out. We only really fought in WW2 in earnest from about 1943-1945, but we came out of it on top of the world. Then you had Bretton-Woods and the US being the only unscathed large scale economy in the world as Asia and Europe laid in ashes while the US mainland was left unscathed at a time when we had our domestic production in full swing to support the war efforts. THAT is what made us a global power rather than a regional one. We also had the most intact standing army leftover having suffered "merely" 50,000 casualties in a global war that took the lives of over 50 million.
The United States suffered at least 291,557 battlefield combat deaths in WW2, and at least an additional 113,842 military personnel deaths from other causes than direct combat.
We did not casually waste our soldiers' lives as the Soviet Union did, and of course we had far fewer civilian casualties than the countries fought upon, but it was no picnic. That second category being notably smaller than the first is the reason WW2 ranks below the Civil War, when two-thirds of military deaths were from disease and other privations.
We did lose a lot of people but our national infrastructure didn’t get absolutely demolished the way that most European and Asian countries did. And our body count was less than 1% of the total kill count for the war (<500k American KIAs vs more than 50M worldwide). That put us in an extremely advantageous position once the conflict was finished in terms of economics and military power.
I'm even more concerned about the generation of Americans growing up with Social Media, smartphones, and MAGA/Trump as "normal". My parents' generation still had parents and grandparents with farms. So many of them had farms! Now, there's like 4 guys in Ohio that work the fields to pay the loans for the farming equipment they have to buy (and aren't allowed to fix).
The corporations own a lot of the farms now too in addition to the farming equipment and the rights to repair that equipment. What happened to American manufacturing happened to American farms. The shareholders and banks own that one now too. Besides, how you gonna keep em down on the farm when the decadence of the city and suburbs are calling.
Here where I am in OH...we still actually have quite a few privately owned farms, it is pretty cool. especailly the stand with fruits and veggies at reasonable prices
Enjoy em while they last.
Yep, so many things are gone that I miss, I hope this one lasts...( might be stubborness...lol)