Global Research, December
21, 2019
Region: USA
Theme: History
In May of 2014, Frank
Bruni wrote an article for the NYT titled ‘America the Shrunken’, in which
he detailed what he called “the downward arc of a diminished enterprise” that
was the USA, quoting friends who claimed their children would live in a more
impoverished America, that the reign was over and the slide was inevitable. The
optimism and the arrogant swagger are mostly gone. He quoted Democratic
strategist Doug Sosnik who wrote, “At the core of Americans’ anger and
alienation is the belief that the American dream is no longer attainable.” (1)
He wrote,
“For the first time in our
country’s history, there is more social mobility in Europe than in the United
States. More and more I get the sense that we’ve lost it. Everywhere you turn,
the evidence mounts. American schoolchildren aren’t anywhere near the head of
the international pack, and American adults, according to one recent study,
lack the technical skills that peers in many other developed countries have.
American bridges crumble. American trains crawl. American flights leave from
terminals that pale next to many Asian and European counterparts.”
“Joe Biden acknowledged as
much when he compared La Guardia Airport to a third-world country. I’ve been to
La Guardia and I’ve been to Guatemala, and if I were Guatemala, I’d sue for
defamation.” (2) And again, “the middle class in America, which had long been
the world’s most affluent, wasn’t anymore. Canada had overtaken us. My Times
colleague Nicholas Kristof wrote about America’s rank on a new “social progress
index” that includes 132 countries. We’re 39th in basic education, 34th in
access to water and sanitation – access to water and sanitation! – and … just
two spots above Slovenia.”
Also in May of 2014, Peter
van Buren wrote an article titled An Empire in Decline, City by City, Town
by Town, in which he related some of his travels through parts of the US today
and compared them to their appearance in their prime – a time not very long
ago. He began by writing: (3)
“As America’s new economy
starts to look more like the old economy of the Great Depression, the divide
between rich and poor, those who have made it and those who never will, seems
to grow ever starker. I know. I’ve seen it firsthand, the cumulative effects of
years of deindustrialization, declining salaries, absent benefits, and weakened
unions, along with a rise in meth and alcohol abuse, a broad-based loss of good
jobs, and soaring inequality seemed similar enough to me. The destruction of a
way of life in the service of the goals of the 1%, whether in Iraq or at home,
was hard to miss. I grew up in the Midwest at a time when the country still
prided itself on having something of a conscience, when it was a place still
built on hope and a widespread belief that a better future was anybody’s
potential birthright. Inequity was always there, and there were always rich
people and poor people, but not in the ratios we see now in America. What I
found in my travels was place after place being hollowed out as wealth went
elsewhere and people came to realize that, odds on, life was likely to get
worse, not better. For most people, what passed for hope for the future meant
clinging to the same flat-lined life they now had.
Visit Atlantic City in 2014
and it’s again a hollowed-out place. The once swanky mall built on one of the
old amusement piers has more stores shuttered than open. Trump Plaza, a
monument to excess and hubris, is now a catalog of decay. The pillows in the
rooms smell of sweat, the corners of doors are chipped, many areas need a new
coat of paint, and most of the bars and restaurants resemble the former
Greyhound bus terminal a few blocks away. People covered with the street gravy
that marks the homeless wander the casino, itself tawdry and too dimly lit to
inspire fun. There were just too many people who were clearly carrying
everything they owned in a backpack.”
His visits and commentary
extended to many locations he had known earlier, perhaps in his childhood, and
all, in their own way, fit the description above. There are still some rich
cities in America, and even some glitzy ones, but when we pull back the curtains
and survey the entire stage, today we see a preponderance of decay. Detroit,
Chicago, many California cities, much of Florida, and so many more with not
only neighborhoods but entire counties and larger areas rotting from the
inside. The great corporations are gone, the jobs are gone, the wealth is gone;
only decaying skeletons remain to remind us of what once was. So much of
America today is just junkyards, abandoned homes, lifeless slums, empty lots,
rusting carcasses of factories, and homes full of despair.
“California has become a
failed state. California’s crisis is by no means unique. That dream is dead.
Policies enacted in the second half of the 20th century ultimately undermined
it. The tax revolt of the late 1970s dismantled the dream in order to enable a
select few to continue enjoying it. Large corporations and the elites chose to
restructure state government to cut off everyone else from public services
while preserving their own subsidies.” Bill Bryson said in an interview with
the UK Telegraph: “America has, during my lifetime, engaged in long campaigns
to make everything as ugly as possible. I just find that heartbreaking and
disappointing.” (4)
A cover story of Time
magazine carried the headline The Broken States of America, in which it said
“Schools, health services,
libraries – and the salaries that go with them – are all on the chopping block
as states and cities face their worst cash squeeze since the Great Depression.”
A nation that is good at
destroying things – with wars overseas and mind-bogglingly self-destructive
policies here at home – but that has lost sight of how to build and maintain a
flourishing society. We’re dismantling our public school system and,
incredibly, attacking our useless system of higher education.” (5)
According to a report by Ken
Klippenstein, Detroit today has 60,000 to 70,000 empty buildings, many city
blocks with only one or two remaining dilapidated homes that have not been
demolished, and city services are almost non-existent. So much of the city is
virtually uninhabited that the fire department can no longer afford to bother
fighting fires, and bus service or other public services have been
discontinued. The city is simply dying, officials begging residents to relocate
to a high-density city core in a final bid to survive. It may be too late. It
is possible almost anywhere in Detroit today to buy a nice large home for only
$1 because the owner of a worthless property wants to escape the high taxes and
maintenance or demolishing costs. There are no takers.
American cities are not only
crumbling; they are increasingly filing for bankruptcy. Stockton, California
was one of the largest bankruptcies in recent history, and today, according to
reports, has “piles of garbage in the central streets; barricaded entrances to
once-luxurious shopping centers; homeless, drunken beggars; rampant crime; and
an unemployment rate of 20 percent.” San Bernardino, also in California, went
bankrupt with debts of more than $1 billion, as did Jefferson, Alabama, and of
course the latest and largest being Detroit, General Motors’ headquarters. This
is the largest municipal bankruptcy ever in the US and, while this city may be
the worst example, it is by no means the only similar example. But the bankers
won’t lose; they bullied the state and local governments to raid the public and
private pension plans of the city’s residents to repay their loans before the
bankruptcy.
One American commenting on
an article in the Wall Street Journal, wrote the following:
“I’ve said it again and I’ll
say it now, the US is in terminal decline. The fact that they have to run
trillion dollar deficits with 0% interest rates and QE infinity and can only
get 2% growth proves my point. I give the US another 10 years before their
giant debt based Ponzi scheme comes crashing down and the United States
economically collapses like the Soviet Union and the US might even break up
politically. I live here in the US, and I can tell you that there is absolutely
no rule of law here, it’s corrupt to the bone. The politicians are bought by
interest groups and the Caucasian population is dumb as a doorknob.”
Another commenter on the
same article:
“As a Chinese living in
America, I’ve seen the US and I can tell you this country has no future; the
education system is failing, crime is off the scale, drug use is rampant,
adultery is out of control, teen pregnancies are at all time highs. The debt is
actually a lot worse than the official numbers say, it’s sometimes double or
triple the official figure. The US government fudges its books to appear
strong, don’t believe a single number they say, it’s all manipulated. Here in
the US, there are two books, one book for the public and one for the officials.
Vast majority of the innovation done here is all done by Asians, mostly from China.
Nearly all the top universities are filled with Asian students. The white
students just aren’t smart enough or hardworking enough to beat the Asians.
Anyone thinking this will be the century of America is beyond delusional. It’s
a country on the way down and fast. I give it another 10 years before this
facade comes to a crashing and painful end. Folks you are witnessing the
decline of the United States.”
*
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Larry Romanoff is a
retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive
positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international
import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan
University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA
classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of
ten books generally related to China and the West. He can be contacted
at: 2186604556@qq.com. He is a frequent
contributor to Global Research.
Notes
The original source of this
article is Global Research
Copyright © Larry
Romanoff, Global Research, 2019
/https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/09/25/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-receives-warm-welcome-upon-return-to-china/_1_meng_wanzhou_2.jpg)
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