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Laura Ingraham: Did "BHO" Push Out Petraeus to Keep Him Silent About Benghazi?

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Killgore Trout11/09/2012 5:25:24 pm PST

re: #325 lostlakehiker

A large part of every nation’s current prosperity rests on this Pax Americana. If we didn’t do it, China’s navy would patrol the seas and put down piracy. Because somebody’s got to. China’s armed forces would intervene in wars over resource-grabbing such as Iraq’s short-lived conquest of Kuwait.

We need to fix our domestic economic model because access to resources needs more than just open sea lanes and a degree of order in the producing country. It needs a dollar that has some credibility, and it needs an economy that can produce real things of value with which to outbid others for the resources.

As the rest of the world catches up, and as we run these large deficits, both these “needs” become tough to meet. Other nations are going to buy up more, leaving less for us. So we’ll have to make do with less. Less oil, less of various rare earth elements, less cocoa and tea and coffee.

The rare earths shortage will be really painful unless we can open some mines of our own. Since these are needed for producing the magnets used in wind turbines, they could become a bottleneck to green energy and energy independence.

We need to fix other parts of our domestic economic model. While we can produce more and more with fewer and fewer workers, and while this solves the production problem, it doesn’t solve the distribution problem. I don’t see that anybody has a good answer just yet.

Interesting thoughts. I would guess the Germans might be a good model for us to look at for inspiration. Huge economy, decent manufacturing sector, all without the massive global military budget. I don’t know how economically viable it is but I have a personal philosophical objection to our obscene consumer culture. Germans and Europeans are slightly better on this front but not by much. I know modern economics depends on rampant consumerism and perpetual growth. Culturally speaking I don’t think it’s healthy.