What do think if we, as a country, pulled every American and resource we had back within our borders?

Question

Including all military, aid, everything and close all borders. When other countries come begging, remind them that they did not want us there.
It seems like they don't mind taking our food and money.

Answer 1

AGAIN, America is not a nation America is a continent with 36 nations in it. The US never named itself the name of the United States is a designation it comes from the end of the Declaration of Independence, "WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled...". The preamble to the U.S. Constitution reiterated the phrase: "We the People of the United States..." (The authors of these two documents probably used the phrase "united states" in place of a list of colonies/states because they remained uncertain at the time of drafting which colonies/states would sign off on the sentiments therein.) The geographic term "America" specifies the states' home on the American continent.

It is therefor incorrect to refer to US citizens as Americans with the intent of denoting citizenship, or the United States as America with the intent of denoting a nation. Americans have a term for US citizens, we are called United Statesians by the rest of Americans, to say American with the intent of denoting citizenship or America when we mean the United States reflects poorly on our attitude towards the 70% of Americans that are not United Statesians.

That said,

As you can easily see from the figures below the United States is not a self-sufficient nation, we need the rest of the world MORE than they need us. We don’t want them to figure that out though, it would be against our best interests. We have worked very hard over the last 200 years to get the economy of the world to were it is today, were we are the beneficiaries of the world’s resources, some Asian nations are starting to follow the same path this is creating problems for us because there simply aren’t enough resources in the world to maintain our standard of life for another 2 billion people.

Now, let’s assume that we could make the US an isolationist nation. Our budget is 2.1 Trillion dollars, our GDP is 11.7 Trillion, our imports 1.7 trillion and exports 0.9 trillion our foreign debt is 8.8 trillion and our foreign aid is ONLY 7 billion that is 0.007 trillion as you can see compared to what we import, owe, or the difference between what we sell and buy the sum is so incredibly small that it’s simply not worth mentioning. The rest of the world could say keep your 6 billion no biggie. Can we do without the imports from food to consumer good? And most importantly can we do without the capital imports? The answer is a resounding NO. On top of everything else we need them for, just to maintain our industry and standard of life, we need them to PAY for what we spend but can’t afford, that is what becomes our external debt, as of last year it stood at 8.8 trillion as of today it stands at well over 9 trillion. What’s more we need them to keep buying US dollars, not only do we borrow to spend what we don’t have but we PRINT new money to pay for what we owe, we owe them US dollars and we have the ability to print US dollars (no other nation can do that) so we simply print money to pay them. This is an extremely inflationary policy that will in time come back to bite us in the rear, but for now the rest of the world still has their reserves in US dollars. When they realize that the US dollar is only worth 3 cents they will start selling them making our currency worthless, China is already ‘diversifying’ it’s holdings exchanging US dollars for Euros and other currencies. The rest is likely to follow suit soon.

Bottom line: If we were to make the US an isolationist country the European Union, Japan and China would quickly fill the void left by us, it would create a tremendous void in the world that would mostly benefit 2nd tier nations those that are semi-industrialized today nations like Russia, the Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico etc. they would gladly fill the void left by removing the US from world trade. After new alliances and commercial routes had been established within a year the rest of the world would be back to normal and those second tier nations would start enjoying the wealth we now have. On the other hand our economy would be in shambles, millions of people would be unemployed, we would not be able to feed ourselves without developing new technologies to propel our nation (since we are oil dependent ), our industry would come to a stand still since we import most of the raw material it uses, the same story would repeat itself countless times on and on and on, it would take over a century for this nation to achieve 50% of the standard of living we enjoy today. That, after having endured unseen hardship.
WE NEED THEM MORE THAN THEY NEED US.

BTW I tried sending you a note, but I got this message:
"Oops

Your email did not go through because the recipient\'s email address has not been confirmed. "

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Source https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Econ
Imports:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$1.727 trillion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
Definition Field Listing
agricultural products 4.9%, industrial supplies 32.9% (crude oil 8.2%), capital goods 30.4% (computers, telecommunications equipment, motor vehicle parts, office machines, electric power machinery), consumer goods 31.8% (automobiles, clothing, medicines, furniture, toys) (2003)

Exports:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$927.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
Definition Field Listing
agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%, industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%, capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment) 49.0%, consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0% (2003)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$86.94 billion (2004 est.)

Debt - external:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
$8.837 trillion (30 June 2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
Definition Field Listing
ODA, $6.9 billion (1997)

Budget:
Definition Field Listing
revenues: $2.119 trillion
expenditures: $2.466 trillion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2005 est.)

Public debt:
Definition Field Listing Rank Order
64.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Answer 2

Stupid idea. Think it through. So, we do what you say and withdraw from the world. We don't send out aid, we don't trade with other countries, we close our country off and become Island America.

1) Millions of Americans will lose their jobs because they work for the many multi-national companies that you think are "American." People that work for Kodak, Polaroid, Duracell, EverReady, WalMart, Sears, JC Penny, Macy's, Mattel, Boeing, Northrop, American Airlines, United Airlines, Timex, etc. They will lose their jobs because there will be nothing to sell as their merchandise is made outside the USA. They will lose their jobs because they sell/service customers outside the USA.
2) No Guinness, Heineken, Steinlager, (real) Champagne, caviar, Belgian chocolate, etc. because these are all made outside the USA.
3) No X-Box, PlayStation, Dell, Gateway, Canon, Sony, Toyota, Volvo, Blackberry, Nokia, LG or any other electronic device. We buy almost everything from outside the US. We manufacture almost no electronics here.
4) Kiss your SUV goodbye. Kiss your TV, PC, and anything that runs on electricity goodbye. You want us to cut ties to everything outside our borders? The last time we produced enough domestic oil for our consumption was in 1970. We import a lot of oil.
5) No oil means no plastic. Look around your home. See all the plastic? Imagine life without ZipLock, Glad, saran wrap and Tupperware.
6) Look around your home. Do you buy American only? Really? You don't have anything made outside the USA? You'd better read the fine print. American manufacturing has moved outside the USA and we have become a nation of importers.

The days of isolationism are over. We've become used to buying things for a reasonable price. Buying American means paying more.

Being marooned on Island America won't guarantee our safety. Pinheads like Timothy McVeigh will still be here.

You must not be an American. Americans don't hide from bullies. We confront them and kick their a** because we know that they will continue to push us around until we hurt them. Don't be a chicken. Be an American.

This question is an insult to all the people who died 5 years ago.

Answer 3

I think the rest of the world would go on living, while "Americans" (as most people label US citizens) would probably starve for years and eventually adapt.

The United States only represents about 4.6% of the world's population, and while it also represents over 20% of the world's GDP (PPP) closing its borders to other countries would effectively be closing those countries' borders from the US.

This really means that the US' $1.727 trillion worth of imports would immediately stop to be replaced with the $927.5 billion in current exports - mostly made up of stuff "Americans" wouldn't need anyway. Also don't forget that although the United States has $12.36 trillion in GDP (purchase power), closing its borders means it wouldn't have anything to spend it on - nevermind the fact that probably 80% of that is in foreign investments that would shrivel up to nothing.

Sure, the US could do it and would eventually adapt to the situation, but why? It would only make the country weaker, not stronger. And if their goal was to make other countries appreciative of what they provide them now, I highly doubt that would be the way to go about it.

Answer 4

The other countries would hate us more and Israel would plunge into war with the entire middle east. God would be forced to smite the invaders of Israel with fire and brimstone and the next step in the end times would be upon us. We would lose important sources of resources around the world and we would be standing by while Muslim countries committed genocide on groups of people that didn't think like they wanted them to.

Answer 5

Everyone sign this petition even if it takes three hands: President Bush you won the war. Now bring 4/5 of troops home. Leave 1/5 who volunteer to stay and get paid by Iraq to train and act as body guards. By the way if Iraq pays them, than they don't have to pay IRS.

Answer 6

I would say, "can you say 9/11 part II?" Even though it sounds like a great idea in theory, there will always be those that hate the US and the freedoms that we represent. We would only find ourselves fighting these battles on our home turf at the expense of many more innocent people...

Answer 7

That is a very simplistic idea and theory. If we were to do that, madmen from all over the world would be free to overthrow governments and cause war. Eventually, we would also have to be involved, only too late to stop the onslaught of those criminals.

Chow!!

Answer 8

That would be good in theory, but not possible. We are dependent on other countries to the tune of a 3 trillion dollar deficit. Our global businesses would collapse and millions of people would be without work. Oh, we would probably starve to death too. The worst thought on that is...could you imagine being forced to drive a Ford or Chevy?

Answer 9

Like you did during the World Wars you mean?

Answer 10

It is great incestuous plan, born in the hill of Arkansaaa! And the only thing you get with incestuous is retarded cats.

Answer 11

I agree. We should work on fixing things around our own house before fixing things for the neighbors.