Is THAT what we receive back? Being so lucky as to support the world's military budget while the EU spends their money on healthcare? Gee, thanks.
Well our's certainly would collapse. I'm not talking about a single Country boycotting us, I'm talking about all these Countries (who are disillusioned with our President) boycotting. (Guess we can still sell to the Phillipines and India ) There are plenty of alternatives for our goods, services and investment dollars in that substantial group of nations. HS, you are aware of how much the Global Economy is a two-way street, and how we help fund our trade deficit by printing and exporting dollars, and how the dollar could theoretically be replaced by the Euro. Help these guys who think we need no one correct their perspective.
What happens if Boki becomes a perennial All Star? The Rockets would look pretty silly. Of course, that will never happen so it's really kind of a moot point.
Ummm, no thanks. I am actually an easy person to get along with and I'm not saying that I think we're better than everyone. I'm saying they don't care what we think so why should we care. I appreciate your extreme lack of civility though, thanks.
As you mentioned in your above post, I’m referring to economic reliance. As other countries become economically stronger (China, India, EU), the economic reliance on the US diminishes. Given that 80% of Canada’s trade is with the US, if you go down we go down too, but it’s pretty clear to me that the rest of the world is rising up around us. This is not all bad by any means, and indeed is largely good, but it is changing the power relationships.
HayesStreet i don't think you understand how most of the world views the U.S... there have been some good documentaries on BBC that somewhat show what' exactly are the problems(some are true others are not IMHO)... if you keep watching the U.S news you will be brainwashed…its called propaganda … all the large corporations have connections with the government… there are limits to what you can say and do…. Bill Mahr “politically incorrect” his show was cancelled a couple days after he said “the U.S has been bombing other countries for years”…where is the so called “freedom of speech” …. this is just one example…there are many cases like this…I know I’m going off the point…. i’m just saying you gotta step out of the box and try to view it from the outside…. i live in Canada…and it’s unbelievable how much hatred there is towards Bush… it’s the government that loves bush cause lets just say the economy does matter to us… 80% of our trade is to the U.S…. just like this many of the U.S allies are there for economical reasons....i personally believe the U.S has done things that have definitely helped other nations…no doubt about it…though there have been some major mistakes as well….#1 Putting Saddam in power, by assassinating the former leader….#2 helping Osama fight those Russians….it seems weird that those two would turn out to be the two biggest idiots….these are mistakes that the U.S should apologize for…they are major to those who have been effected by them…. Plus they should’nt have charged Kuwait & Saudi for so much oil for the attack on Iraq in the Gulf War...plus what's this second war about??…it does not seem right to charge someone for your own mistake …there is more to what I’m stating obviously…but this is the gist of it….its just things like this I guess that screws up the U.S image.
We are China's biggest trading partner. If they suddenly decided 'not' to export to us, their economy would go down the toilet. We have the biggest market in the world, so the same goes for the EU. That is a fact. Interdependence means exactly that. We could still buy a FORD if Japan didn't import a Honda. We could still supply all of our food. We are not as dependent (although it would certainly hurt) on our partners as you would lead us to believe. The bottom line is that a trade war, or isolationist policy, or worldwide embargo, would certainly hurt us. But it would hurt those imposing the embargo far worse than ourselves. Those are the facts.
Vince, I love ya. But you're weak and you refuse to go to the rack anymore. I lived in Europe for several years, so while I appreciate your 'think outside the box' nonsense - been there, done that. As for your first, putting Saddam in power, this is really more .org assertion than fact. Second, regardless of whether or not we put him in power, the legitimate and appropriate response is certainly to remove him from power. Third, we weren't the only nation supporting the mujahadeen's fight against the Soviets - that was the whole western world. Fourth, are you blaming us for Al Queda because we supported the mujahadeen against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, because that is certainly what it sounds like - and reprehensible I might add. One large country annexes another - we proactively support the invaded country and that's BAD? I think not. Charged so much oil? Stop kegging with Bob and Doug MacKenzie. What is this claptrap about? Please elaborate.
No, I refer to greater interdependence. I refer to the Gloabl Markets and Global Corporations. As HayesStreet mentioned, China relies on us to buy all of those porducts that it sells, India is heavily reliant on the US for it's technology sector. If anything, 2 of the 3 you mentioned are MORE reliant on the US. But similarly, we're more reliant on them. We don't have the production capacity that we used to have and losing China as a trading partner would seriously hurt us also. India's not quite there yet, but could be in another 10 years. And of course this discussion is purely a hypothetical exercise to discuss these depedencies/interdependenicies. No nation or group of nations would initiate such boycotts unless we're close to a war situation. It would sink the global economy.
I am no expert, but it seems to me that even as large and as varied an economy as that in the US is vulnerable and needs to heed world opinion at some level. There are too many long-term economic trends that look ominous to continue alienating the rest of the world. The US government and private economy are so based on trade and especially borrowing and maintaining massive deficits that if the rest of the world decided the US was not a good long-term investment for their business, or was a rouge nation then they damn well *could*cripple the US economy. For example, if Russia, China, Venezuela and the rest of OPEC stop using the US dollar as the oil transaction currency standard in favor of the Euro, the US economy would be in big trouble quickly. The point I'm making is that America can't keep pushing everyone around forever without consequences.
You're right, interdependence is just that. For our standard of living, we are quite dependent. If they acted in unison, I think the impact on our nation would be every bit as great as them collective impact on them. We could not maintain anything near our current standard of living w/o the help of all of these nations who dislike our Administration so strongly. (And could we really make those Fords w/o Chinese manufacturing?) And you failed to address the impact if we no longer could just print and export dollars to be used as the preferred currency for commerce and investment. I bring that up because it has actually been proposed as a way to essentially punish the US economically and thus presumably reduce our influence and ability to wage expensive wars overseas.
Exactly my point. There was a recent article that mentioned that our businesses that are most associated with the US (like McDonalds) may be starting to feel the effect of anti-Americanism. There's no denying that ignoring foreign concerns and thuis creating negative world opinion will cost us in ways that have not been calculated. This argument that 'the rest of the world needs us more than we need them' is inaccurate and dangerous.
Not really. It's an exercise in extremes to show what could, and is starting to happen at the grassroots level. I don't predict a major grassroots boycott, but I don't want to see a slow erosion of consumers of American goods and services either. Furthermore, moving away from the US dollar IS quite possible and could damage our economy and standard of living seriously.
HayeStreet.... first of all....from you living outside makes no difference....the thing is people will be all nice to you .....but it is when you turn your back that they will speak the truth... nobody speaks their mind about something so sensative to a person who represents what they are bashing....com'on now what world are you living in.... i don't want to get into an argument about this but it is a well known fact that the american gov. image is very weak and badly looked upon by other nations....especially in the eastern world. and the fact that you don't know that the U.S helped Saddam assassinate their former ruler shows me your level of knowledge on foreign affairs... i know plenty of Iraq's in Canada plus other countries ...most have lived in Iraq.....it is a well KNOWN FACT that the Saddam was a U.S co-operative....who was trained and put in power.... the man was a tyrant and he was a nut since he went into power....the fact that you say it is an .org MYTH shows me you are absolutely blinded by the box.... and in afghan.... the u.S helped for their own reasons....'cold war' there is no PERFECT country out there....everybody has done something wrong.... that's just how the world is....for you to sit there and support the U.S in absolutely everything it does is wrong.... its like when Hitler had the german people mezmorized....he got people to follow him....shows how weak the human mind is..regarless if he was right or wrong he got peeps to follow.. the U.S is not always the good guy like in the movies.....you have been brainwashed.
Looks like someone's been watching Michael Moore...*yawn* I find it funny when you talk about weak human minds and then regurgitate the latest Michael Moore babblings.
You are the one who is ignoring facts. I have not seen F/911, nor do I plan to, but I knew in the 80's that the US DID install Saddam. Or haven't you seen the picture of Donald Rumsfeld in Iraq with Saddam Hussein? You can claim that it is a fake, but at that point, YOU become the conspiracy theorist, which is worse that Michal Moore's distortions.
Don’t forget that they also have an emerging market in each other. And countries like Japan have emerging markets in China and India and other developing nations, etc., so the relative reliance on the US as a market will diminish. I haven’t said anything about boycotts, and I agree that the degree of interdependence is increasing, but in general terms, as these economies emerge, the relative importance of the US economy will decrease. And if the US continues to fall back on protectionism like it’s doing with Canada on the softwood lumber issue and the BSE issue, then you’ll become inefficient and further diminished economically, but this is a whole other subject area.
Bottom line: We American's care what the world thinks about us, BUT, we are not willing to sacrifice our beliefs because someone else thinks differently. The USA got to be the biggest, baddest, and richest country in the world by sticking to it's foundations, and no amount of whining by the rest of the world will change that. If the EU ever gets it's act together they could challenge us, but for every success story like the new Airbus, there are 100 more where they bicker over old squabbles and nothing gets done. China could easily challenge us, but their extreme split between the wealthy and the poor with a very small middle class really hurts their chances. Russia, same thing, but they probably have the best chance, because they are EMULATING our system. So to paraphrase: Yes we care, but not enough to worry about it too much. DD
