11-05-2021, 11:38 AM
(11-05-2021, 10:40 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: We aren't? Most military spending, largest GDP, biggest contributor to the UN, most deployed nukes in the world, 3rd largest active military, 10 active aircraft carriers (nobody else has more than 2 and there's only 12 in the whole non-US world combined). Still a pretty strong exporter of culture, one of the biggest exporters of food. Most billionaires (for better or worse). We've even reached public sector space travel.
I am not commenting on anything else in this thread because it's a bit silly, I am just genuinely curious.
Do you understand how quickly all of that comes crumbling down if we decide to burn bridges with friendly nations? Since we're still a very petroleum-based country, all it takes is Saudi Arabia going 'eh **** those guys' and shit hits the fan in about 2 months. And that's just one country.
You know all the shortages we have right now in the technology field? Because one country doesn't want to deal with us. It's breaking down computer parts, car parts, forklift parts - lot's of behind the scenes things that nobody really pays attention to until they're going wrong.
All that military spending? Most of it goes to private contractors to develop tomorrow's fun new explosives which they then sell back to the country who funded R&D at a marked up price while also selling to to said funding companies enemies. Capitalism!
Since we've spent the last 40ish years sending all our manufacturing overseas (love those tax breaks), we no longer have the means the create a lot of that stuff. Our oil supply would last 2-3 months depending on usage (which given the way toilet paper disappeared last year, I can only imagine how hard people will hoard gasoline when word comes down we're not making it anymore).
We're a third world country in a Gucci belt, being held up by the very things the Right seems to hate (i.e: other countries full of not white folks).
Don't believe me? Don't care. A simple search on Google will verify what I've said here and no, I won't provide links because I've been burned by WAY too many bad faith debaters to waste my 30 seconds.
Edit: and just because I forgot to mention; all this huffing and puffing about the debt ceiling and all that shit - we're one of two countries in the world who has that. We're also the only FiRsT wOrLd CoUnTrY without universal healthcare, guaranteed time off, or maternity/paternity leave. We also rank somewhere around near last in the Happiness Scale, and we also have more people in prison than the next like 5 or 6 countries combined. 10/10 would leave if any country wanted an American.
