Is America becoming a third world nation?

We Canucks will have to get off our collective butts and earn some new customers. The owner of my workplace just came back from Germany, we've started shipping product there.

America is not becoming a 3rd world nation at all. Hype and hysteria.

China will be the #1 economy in the world by 2025-2030, but it will still be a "wealthy nation" made up of poor people.

In 10 years we'll be wondering why we even had this debate and how laughable it was. The USA still has lots of steam left as a global powerhouse, possibly in the hundreds of years.

When politicians actually start having to make tough decisions about the bloated society safety nets they have created, then I'll listen to this kind of hypothetical. America is still, by far, the richest nation in the world, and looks to remain that way for a while.

Bloated military.


America's safety net is pitiful, even compared to middle income countries.

doesnt that mean canada is too?

America is not becoming a 3rd world. We are going to lose our superpower status. We are going to be like the United Kingdom after WWII.

No, we just do things differently than European-style countries do and we always have.

One of our core philosophies that is coming back into vogue is that the best "safety nets" are families and churches.

As to the reductions in police forces, many communities are responding to that by issuing more carry-permits. Volunteer fire departments will no doubt come back into fashion as salaried fire jobs disappear.

Heck, we already have volunteers for the border patrol with the Minute Men.

In Clarksburg it's volunteers mowing the lawns at the schools and doing the maintenance and, you know what? They get more done than the union-wage staff ever did.

Bottom line on this thing is that we can't tax ourselves into prosperity and the window is absolutely closing on borrowing from the future. While that may mean some hard times, I think it's good for the country because people will learn to cling to their families and churches and communities more.

No, we won't fall that far. Unlike the UK we still have vast amounts of natural resources and we also fall astride a continent which makes us important for trade. If we can restart our manufacturing base (steel, cars, consumer goods) we'll be fine. All we need is a really rippin' trade war with China and I do believe that will happen before the end of next year unless they float their currency.

I don't think the US is anywhere close to becoming a 3rd world nation.

By its original definition, the 3rd world were undeveloped countries, lacking in manufacturing, infrastructure, transportation, education, etc. The US is far too developed to fall that far, but within 20-40 years, it will see itself eclipsed economically by China (if things stay the way they are), which itself will still be pretty close to a 3rd world country. Anyone who has ever travelled in China (and I mean outside of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong) knows exactly what I mean. Almost the entire western half of the country is sparsely settled and has the transportation net equal to most of Africa.

No, the US will be much like Japan, the UK or other major world powers, very important economically, but not the linchpin of the world economy the way it is today.

One key thing for the US to avoid (IMHO) is fighting many expensive wars. Fighting long, economically draining wars was a key factor in the UK being eclipsed by the USA (although it would have happened eventually anyways just because of demographics and natural resource endowment). The fewer wars they fight in the next generation will result in a lengthening of the time it takes China (or India) to surpass them.

China is coming close to civil war. That's not something I would typically post here because I will not back it up. The thing is that their government is starting to lose its grip on power and coupled with the economic contraction that WILL hit China when they are forced to let their currency float or to deal with massive tariffs from the EU & US they're going to be awash in young, unemployed people who've been raised to think that the government is supposed to take care of them.

Once their civil war shakes out they'll be a 3rd world country once again.

By the way, a lot of folks in my circles believe the Chinese may nuke one or two of their own cities as the government tries to retain power.

The world will be a much less friendlier place, the day that China can dictate terms to the USA, be it financial or military

Some on this site would argue with you on that.

I'm not going to argue that there aren't some serious points where the American military needs to cutback and streamline its operation, but the biggest problems with the federal government's debt arise from non-discretionary social spending. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security need to be fixed, and no one (correction: few people) have the balls to say it and try to do something about it.

Some on this site would argue with you on that.
First, I would argue that "much less friendlier" is poor English, and then I would argue that China is a long way off from dictating terms to the US. Their holdings of US debt allow them strong leverage, but leaves them invested in the continual stability and growth of the US.