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Why the US should be worried

Uma Shankar Sathya Kumar, London, January 4, 2007

You always think that the United States of America is the only real superpower in the current world. Well… soon you may have to rethink about it. The "real superpower" title is going to become the mother of all lies and conspiracy theories that the world have had ever known. Don't accept it? Read the following facts and think again:

From the beginning of this 21st century, the United States is facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties. Its lower and middle class families are slowly turning out to be the biggest losers of current globalisation. The United States, like ancient Rome, is beginning to be plagued by the limits of its power.

The current globalisation is heavily affecting its economy. In fact, the US has actively promoted the worldwide exchange of commodities like no other nation, and the result is that their local manufacturing industries have begun to be eroded.

Some manufacturing sectors such as furniture, consumer electronics, automobile part suppliers and computer manufacturers have had left the country for good. In the recent past, free trade has primarily benefited the very rival countries that are now mounting a heavy economic offence on the United States and the rival countries have cut off a large slice of America's global market share.

The financial position of the United States has declined dramatically in the last 15 years. The US federal budget is in the deep red, adding to America's dependency on debt.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is wiping out loads of dollars from US treasury. A government functioning so irresponsible with no sense of the prosperity of its own country and people is not really a superpower in any sense.

Almost no one is saving any money in the United States today. Saving rates are very low or negative. The US debt grows by about $1.5 billion every weekday and has now reached about $6.5 trillion dollars. Private household debt has reached $11 trillion and 50 per cent of these debts have been incurred since 1998. The Americans are enjoying the present spending spree at the cost of their own future and future generations. The fact is that the expanding consumer debt drives the US economy.

In the near future, many US citizens may have to face harsh reality like a poverty-stricken, third world family, living from hand to mouth situation without any kind of financial reserves whatsoever. The imminent economic crisis is waiting to happen in the US and will be the most thoroughly predicted one in recent human history. People spending so irresponsible with no sense of the prosperity of the country is not a superpower.

Half the world is very impressed by the low levels of unemployment in the United States. Only the other half clearly knows very well that these statistics may be the result of a voluntary telephone survey. Is working just ten hours per week enough for one to be classified as "employed"? The US statistics is usually intended to create more positive image and opinion than about its actual condition. The net reality is that the US job growth rate is falling behind its own population growth.

A country that cannot create jobs for its own population is not a superpower.

Today, the United State's biggest bankers are China and Japan, both of whom could cause the United States very serious financial problems, if they wish to do so at any time. Roughly 27 per cent of the government bonds issued by the US treasury are held by China and Japan. That's why US doesn't complain much about China and Japan.

A country whose financial affairs are in the hands of foreigners is not a superpower.

The US is heavily dependent on overseas imports of manufactured goods and oil, including advanced technology products. In 2006, US dependency on imports was thrice as large as US dependency on imported crude oil. "No country or economy can survive by importing nearly 80 per cent of manufactured goods and oil from overseas. In fact, no society in the history had ever survived in excessive imports and offshoring manufacturing. Almost every country in the world now exports products to the United States without purchasing an equivalent amount of US goods in return. The United States can't even achieve a trade surplus in its trade with less developed national economies like those of Ukraine and Ghana. Everyday, container ships arrive in the US - and after they unload the goods at American ports, many return home empty.

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