maverick4

I think those projections of China overtaking the US in GDP and other economic measures by 2050, under-estimate just how quickly the entire world can change in a very short amount of time.

Top Chinese banker Guo Shuqing calls for wider use of yuan - Telegraph

[Guo Shuqing, the chairman of state-controlled China Construction Bank (CCB), also said he is exploring the possibility of issuing loans to trading companies in yuan, allowing Chinese and foreign companies to settle their bills in yuan rather than in dollars.

Mr Guo said the issuing of yuan bonds in Hong Kong and Shanghai would help to develop the debt markets in China and promote the yuan as a major international currency.

It was the first time the head of a major Chinese bank has called for the wider use of the yuan, although a chorus of senior government officials have already voiced their concerns about the stability of the dollar and have said the yuan should be used more widely.

"I think the US government and the World Bank can consider the issuing of renminbi bonds," he said, asking for a "mutual cooperation" between the US and China to promote Chinese financial services. He said bond issuance could be relatively small, at between 1bn and 3bn yuan (£100m to £300m).

HSBC and Standard Chartered have both said they are preparing to issue bonds denominated in yuan.]

maverick4

Related CNN Article: US Cannot Support 1Trillion More Debt
Commentary: Can U.S. afford trillion more in debt? - CNN.com

[ (CNN) -- We spend nearly as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. We spend more on health care than anybody else in the world. And we have a bigger national debt than anybody else in the world.

Some experts are warning that if we keep spending like drunken sailors, we may lose our AAA credit rating, costing taxpayers billions more in higher interest payments.

The press widely reported that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner went to China partly to convince the Communist government that we will bring our spending habits under control and that their investments are safe with us.]
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A related question I have is why do we keep spending like madmen for military and for weapons?

BelichickFan

It's partly because highly educated jobs are relatively expensive but I'm not going to try to defend it on an absolute level but I will say :

- Although the DoD should not be a "jobs program", you can't cut defense spending without cutting lots of jobs which defeats the point of the stimulus

- If he wanted, obama could cut defense spending and replace the jobs with equal caliber jobs for alternative energy R&D; he isn't doing anything with that, though.

maverick4

The US spent 1.47 Trillion on military spending last year NOT counting anything Iraq-related. This spending is 48% of the entire world's military spending, and 6 times greater than China.
World Military Spending ? Global Issues

At this point it shouldn't be about the jobs we'd lose if we cut military spending. BF if you're going to use a jobs argument, then you would never be for cutting military spending since jobs would be lost, so you are basically for a constantly expanding military budget.

[edit] I just saw that you also said you'd be for shifting that spending to alternative energy or R&D.

There is no need to have US 950+ military bases around the world.

BelichickFan

I agree and I said "Although the DoD should not be a "jobs program"", I was just pointing out that RIGHT NOW when we are losing jobs faster than we can count would be a particularly bad time to intentionally lose more. That's why I pointed out alternative energy R&D as a direction where we could transfer jobs instead of eliminate them but move in a different direction.

Leave No Doubt

Along those lines: This comes as the Iraq govt arrested 5 US contractors for the killing of another US contractor. Related stories included in the above, also with mention of the US as being the biggest spender in the world.

Democracy Now! | Headlines for June 08, 2009

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edit...2012 BABY!

Real World

The entire world spent $1.47 trillion on military spending. The US spent $711 Billion, or 48% of that figure. The $711 Billion is above the budgeted figure of $517.9 billion, because it includes the supplementals for Iraq and Afghanistan.

No matter how you cut it, we spend too much. I'd slash back, and worry about us, and no one else. I'd actually have followed Donald Rumsfeld's own advice, which was maintaining a smaller, more weapons powerful, technological, rapid force military. It would have been more cost efficient, and wiser for the times. Of course, Rummy put forth his phylospohy, and then went ahead and invaded, and then occupied, a country long term. Go figure.

The military isn't the only killer of this country though. Entitlement programs are as well. You could argue that EP's are worse long term, since people live longer, and the programs grow and grow in size. Either way, the MIC is a problem.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

maverick4

I agree. Thanks for giving those updated, corrected numbers.

To use our military in order to create some sort of modern-day empire is folly. We are stretching ourselves as thin as the Romans used to do, and it helped lead to their downfall as well.

Real World

The military isn't going to be what kills this country. We're not empirical like the Romans were. People like to make direct comparisons between the Romans, and the USA, when only generalities apply. What will kill this country is the unsustainable cost of gubmit. Costs of many kinds, from many different programs and agencies.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

STFarmy

Good God this is the first time I've heard someone other than myself and a few others say this. THANK YOU. There are some general parallels, but it's really a different situation. I'd actually liken us more to the end of the Roman Republic, where public office was gotten more for personal gain than the general good, politicians curried favor with the masses and made empty promises, and conflicting ideas about where the country should go threatened to tear the country apart internally. It's not that dramatic I suppose, but more applicable than the general "AMERICA IS THE ROMAN EMPIRE FALLING DOWN!!" people.