Why Do Great Nations Fail?

[Castaway]

Has anyone seen this one minute viral ad? Chinese Professor. One of the best American made Ads against Big Govt Spending I have ever seen...very powerful...



What do you think? Is it propaganda? Are their lessons here for Australia?

[bill newton]

strong stuff castaway -- we'll go the same way -- we used to be poms - now we're yanks!!!!

carna pies!!!

[RupertofOZ]

Here's a great talk by Niall Ferguson on the subject.... which makes exactly the same point.... and points towards the same conclusion in relation to US fiscal policy and the inevitable fall of the US as a "super power"...

Interestingly, he makes a point about US deficeit levels reaching a point where due to interest payments, which by 2020 could be 120% of US GDP....the US ability to sustain military operations or prescence throughout the world would be crippled...

Put that section within the context of the recent UK defence cut announcements...

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podca...00822_1705.mp3

Part of the ABC's "Big Ideas" series.... a series I would commend to everyone, regardless of political persuation...

[Castaway]

That's an excellent talk Rupe. Listened to it this morning and very well delivered too.

[DaveOponic]

What a sick joke! It isn't Government spending that's bankrupting America it's corporate greed and rampant consumerism. The average American has been suckered in to a wasteful consumerist lifestyle. Eating their way to death through mindless gluttony and adopting a bigger is better mentality. Unlimited credit feeds corporations greed for massive profits by feeding off the massive repayment of interest on houses, cars and consumer junk that citizens can't afford. When unemployment is the end result, manufacture another phoney threat and start another war.

Why do does a Chinese professor star in this ad? Because the old men of the Chinese Capitalist-Communist ruling party would like to see Americans enslaved so that they can do exactly the same as the US capitalists have been doing for generations, only better.

[burnt]

Went and saw David Suzuki at the Brisbane Powerhouse last night, as usual a great lecture and some real food for thought regarding humans place in the world, the economy and the perils of the "economic growth" mantra. The link below is essentially the same lecture as last night but delivered in Vancouver late last year. Fast forward thru the first few minutes till you get to the start of the speech.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/david/dow...pt-17-2010.mp3

[dufflight]

I think the system has to crash. Its too big and people have grown up with this lifestyle to a point that it can't be stoped by appealing to people to change.

[organicus_rex]

The simple answer to the question is this: The nation in question turns its collective back on God. Once the moral rudder is gone the ship is out of control.
Humanism is the system that steps in to take over and it fails miserably because situational ethics spiral downward into a depraved abyss of lasciviousness, greed and destruction.
This is how the Roman Empire fell and the British Empire and soon the US Empire will fall too.