Does This Cause You Any Alarm?

Question

From the Financial Times:

"LEARN FROM THE FALL OF ROME, US WARNED"

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.

These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.

Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”. ...


... “Our very prosperity is placing greater demands on our physical infrastructure. Billions of dollars will be needed to modernise everything from highways and airports to water and sewage systems. The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a sobering wake-up call.”

Mr Walker said he would offer to brief the would-be presidential candidates next spring.

“They need to make fiscal responsibility and inter-generational equity one of their top priorities. If they do, I think we have a chance to turn this around but if they don’t, I think the risk of a serious crisis rises considerably”. "

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/80fa0a2c-49ef-11dc-9ffe-0000779fd2ac.html

Answer 1

Decay and decadence, that is where we are. It is the move to socialism and yes, we are going to become extinct if we cannot stop this move to the left.

Answer 2

There is a limit to the extent the United States can stretch it's resources to maintain stability in the world. The United States is the greatest power the Earth has ever seen and their motives, unlike Romes, is not to conquer the world. I think a hard look is needed for the States to start looking after domestic interests, the welfare of their own citizens should be paramount at this time.Whatever wealth is left should be directed bring harmony at home, the stability of this great nation is all the world has to hang onto for any hope of stability in the rest of this world. It should be obvious to anyone that the Mid East countries have been steeped in dictatorships for so long that nothing else seems to appeal to them, let them solve their own problems their own way, there is enough intelligent people among them to do something constructive, benign dictators are not an impossibility, the United States always backs the wrong man when they intervene, history proves that. Back off and protect North America. Europe is in their back yard, let them use their wealth to protect themselve, the French and Germans don't give a damn about us, we have more than ample proof of that.

Answer 3

Yes, the history channel kept running Roman Empire themed programs for the last year or so now. I am sure that is why. Things seem to be out of control. There doesn't seem to be any sound basis for the things that are done by our government anymore.

The power and money structures of our economy are in the midst of huge changes that nobody has the guts to take charge of. I'm thinking mostly about our need to replace oil and the need to keep our manufacturing within the U.S. Individuals are not as motivated to succeed because the future is very different than it used to be for the U.S. It isn't as noticeable in small towns, but in large cities, the handwriting is on the wall.

Answer 4

The next president of the United States must fix the problems the George W. Bush administration has created. That's why the 2008 elections are critical.

Answer 5

I think the arrogance of this country has put us in this downward spiral for a long long time. We consider ourselves still the worlds superpower when other countries are leaps and bounds ahead of us in every area from education to health care to infrastructure to business and how we pay our workers. Our irresponsibility with environmental issues has made us the leading producer in the world of pollutants and toxic waste and we have the nerve to tell other people how to run their own affairs and their own countries. It is all so inevitable.

Answer 6

"declining moral values and political civility at home", if i remember history. rome expanded and thrived during its pre-christian days, when it became christian it fell. the politics of to day cannot be compared to the politics during roman times because rome had a lot of political changes during its long history. drawing parallelism can be very misleading without knowing the details of both. am i alarmed? no.

Answer 7

We now live in wreckage of the past, and it has long been said history repeats it self.---Now times reminds me of
Nepoleon's mission, I trust no politians no matter Dem/Reb.
Corps. rule, there is no doubt about that. Lawyers are friendly enemies, I can't under stand Bush Sr. and B. Clinton's phoney
buddie buddie, other then$$$$$

Answer 8

All of you people out there who doubt this information...especially the part about declining morals, should wake up and realize that the people of Sodom and Gomhorra doubted it too. You know what happened to those two gay/lesbian cities.

Answer 9

Our priorities are badly skewed towards frivolous and poorly planned endeavors;e.g., The Iraq invasion.

We need to get back to economic basics. Among other things, we need to balance our budget and develop a viable National energy plan.

Answer 10

Not really. It's inevitable. What goes up must always come down.

This has been going on for years, it isn't the first time the comparison between the USA and Rome has been made.