Tracy,

>We have our problems to be sure. I'm not sure you perception of the state of living for the typical American is accurate though Walter.

>http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0104/p09s02-coop.html

Though I do not live in the US, I've been there a couple of times. The US culture also bleed through here through all media (movies, News media, magazines, internet, etc). Sure I won't know all the finesses of living in the USA. but here it goes...

I do not think the major problem is the economy. As the article is stating it is doing pretty well. However the article doe not feel very solid though. It is lacking numbers and definitions which makes it hard to determine the value of the article. For example:

Today, the percentage of household expenditures used to buy nonessential items is at an all-time high - about 50 percent compared with about 45 percent in the mid-1970s

What exactly is defined a such? A TV, Radio, Computer, etc ?? What about the percentage of the netto income spend on it. How do I read how this is distributed over the 300 millions of americans. I simply cannot.

I think we all agree that the income inequity has increased. We know there is a lot of poverty in the US, we know the problems with health care insurances.

What I consider a danger to the whole world is the political structure: The given fact that a war was started on very doubtfull reasons. The last years we have seen quite a number of corruption scandals where bribe from the corporate world was involved. We have seen a president acting on his own to illegally tap phone lines. We have seen the results of an way too optimistic approach of dealing with saddam and iraq. We have seen violations of human rights.
We have seen the world turning away from the US, etc.

Esspecially the tight involvement of the corporate world into politics is a very concerning point, because essentially it will be impossible to change policy that will have a negative effect on the corporate world. The corporate world is not interested in your well being, it is interested in the big bucks and nothing more than that. So a social health care a la europe, is something that we most likely will not see in the near future. Environmental issues will not be addressed because they hurt the corporate world. The weapon lobby might be pushing for war. An administration that really stands for lifting the living standard to a much higher level for everyone is basically chanceless.

Now I hear stories about cheney wanting to 'address' Iran before the end of this administration, because he has not so much confidence in a next administration (as he already feels defeated), is really worrysome. Are we starting a crusade?? WWIII? Hence my comments that europe favours diplomacy over arms. And I'm not too happy how the US took up the arms so easily against iraq.

























>An excerpt:
>
>The US unemployment rate now is at a healthy 4.5 percent. This rate is lower than the average annual unemployment rate for the 1970s (6.2 percent), the 1980s (7.3 percent), and even the high-growth 1990s (5.6 percent). Inflation, meanwhile, is running below the average for the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
>
>Here's more good news for ordinary Americans. The percentage of Americans who own their own homes is higher than ever, even though the size of today's typical home is larger than ever. Workers' leisure time, too, is at historically high levels. And jobs are just as secure today as they were in the late 1960s, according to a research paper by University of California-Davis economist Ann Huff Stevens.
>
>Perhaps you think that this prosperity exists only because so many of today's households require two income earners. But women started leaving homes for paid employment at least a century ago, with no jump since the end of World War II in the rate at which women enter the workforce, according to a recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
>
>Had worker pay truly deteriorated in the past 30 years, and had families reacted by sending moms to the workforce, the rate at which women join the workforce would have increased. It did not.
>
>Today, the percentage of household expenditures used to buy nonessential items is at an all-time high - about 50 percent compared with about 45 percent in the mid-1970s. That undercuts your notion that two incomes are needed just to scrape by. Not only is America's middle class not disappearing - it's thriving.
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>>>>It takes a man to look at it from all angles besides your favourate one. It takes courage to love your enemies. It takes even more courage to critisize your friends.
>>
>>>You're a real hero, Walter.
>>
>>I'll never be, but I accept my fate. Those men who liberated europe, many giving their lives are heros. But so are those, who have the courage and are not affraid to stand up and speak against the stream for a cause they believe in.
>>
>>Again, not claiming to be one, but I think it is time for an american hero to stand up gainst the direction the country is flowing. And I believe many americans at least in their heart believe that. The american dream needs an update. The US needs a leader that will direct the US into a new era of prosperity for ALL americans, not the 2% of elites. A leader that has good sense of international politics (as clinton did.... not implying we need another clinton, but his foreign politics was far superiour than that of both bushes and could certain match reagans).
>>A new leader that has the courage to question the weak points in the US society and political culture.
>>
>>Walter,