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Title: Exclusive: US Empire Will Fall Due To Lack Of Faith, Not Finances Or War, Author Warns
Source:
RawStory
URL Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/ ... g-washington-author-tells-raw/
Published: Jan 27, 2011
Author: Nathan Diebenow
Post Date: 2011-01-27 12:55:52 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 126525
Comments: 176
As many in the American empire longingly talk of "recovery" from the most devastating economic condition since the Great Depression, others have begun thinking in a very different direction, urging fellow citizens to prepare for the worst. Dmitry Orlov, author of "Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects," is one of the latter. Soon, he told Raw Story in an exclusive interview, Americans will "stop expecting anything of Washington," turning the US into more of a "banana republic" than a super power. Orlov, who witnessed the Soviet Union's collapse from within, lamented that the American empire's condition is so severe there is "absolutely nothing" most can do to keep it alive or hasten its demise. "Basically the people in this country are powerless," he suggested. "So they should probably focus on things closer to home." Orlov, born in born in Leningrad (now known as Saint Petersburg), moved to the United States at age 12 and became an engineer. In his book, he detailed his experiences with the Soviet collapse on numerous visits to Russia in the late 1980s, early 1990s. He covered similarities between the two superpowers in their twilight and suggested ways for Americans to adapt to their new post-empire environment. Amid horrid unemployment and a national deficit soaring past World War II levels, Orlov theorized that the US empire would eventually collapse -- not from finances or war, but from a lack of faith in the system. It would happen over three overlapping stages, he said: financial, political and commercial. "We're fairly far along in the financial collapse trajectory while political collapse has now really only started with the last election," he said. By the next election cycle, Orlov figured, the United States would be in the throes of a "banana republic" such that the voters would exchange one inept political party for another inept political party while expecting different results. While nothing constructive would result from this behavior, he said, the next meaningless shift in 2012 may be the last straw. "That will run its course where people walk away in disgust and stop expecting anything of Washington," he said. Environmental and social catastrophe "People will lose access to various products that they need," Orlov said. Much has already collapsed in the commercial sphere. Vacant strip malls and deserted grocery stores clutter the landscape in many parts of the country. "You also have people whose only source of food is food stamps," he said. "That's becoming predominant in a lot of communities." But let's not fail to mention an overemphasis on military expenditures and unused industrial areas, Orlov insisted, describing them as mis-investments made by both empires. "To this day, the former Soviet Union is littered with abandoned or semi-abandoned industrial sites just as the United States is," he noted. By Orlov's estimation, the US military will never voluntarily quit being the world's largest oil consumer and largest polluter. Moreover, any plans suggested to the military to end its oil dependency in 30 years are an act of "desperation," he said. "They have set their hair on fire and are running around in circles. That's their drill right now," Orlov quipped. But what really seemed to rock the Soviet empire to its foundations, Orlov explained, was devastation of Russia's physical environment as a result of industrialization. The prime example was the nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl in 1986. To this day, the site continues to produce very high levels of childhood leukemia, cancers and other diseases. "[The Chernobyl accident] caused a great number of people, including people in some positions of authority, especially in the scientific community in Russia, to seriously mistrust the government, and [they] started doing their own research, making their own observations that disquieted them even more," Orlov explained. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's "glasnost" policy allowed enough truth out to undermine the remaining Soviet authority to the point where those who operated the system lost interest in perpetuating it, Orlov said. While likening the Chernobyl disaster to the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico on his blog, Orlov said that he expects no hearts of American leaders to bleed over their destroyed environment any time soon. "I don't see the elite in the United States at quite that level of desperation quite yet -- probably because they are a little bit less attuned to what's going on," he said. "They are a little bit more sheltered from the public at large. But that might change."
As the financial collapse runs its course, Orlov said, people can expect some imports to be cut off. Energy, above all cheap oil, will be the most important import to dry up. Transportation fuels will also become scarce, bringing on the next stage of social collapse: the commercial sphere, he noted.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 111.
#1. To: Brian S, go65, lucysmom (#0)
The USA is already a "banana republic" in one regard, the wealth distribution disparity is much or greater than it was in Latin America back when they were all dictatorships. http://www.businessinsider.com/its-official-in-terms-of-income-inequality- america-is-now-a-banana-republic-2010-11 IT'S OFFICIAL: America Is Now A Banana Republic One of the hallmarks of banana republics, says the NYT's Nicholas Kristof, is income inequality. In some countries, the wealthiest 1% of the population takes home 20% or more of the national income. And now the same is true in America: The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. As Timothy Noah of Slate noted in an excellent series on inequality, the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana. C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent. ------------- LOL, the tea bagging peasants were cool with getting the crumbs of the remaining 1/5th of the wealth because they were living large on credit cards. Now that's over too. Maybe in 2012 the tea baggers will wake up and realize they were snookered by the GOP ideology of trickle down?
And the historical solution that the leftists always employ is to make every equally poor, except of course for the party apparatchiks who get to control everything.
Good, that's just what your masters want you to think.
Joseph Stalin, Nicolae Ceauescu, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, and countless others... History is very clear on this. Very clear.
America's wealth disparity makes America very USSR like since all the power and wealth resides in the top 1%.
If you think you are not getting your fair share, educate yourself and make yourself more marketable to employers. Everyone else can do the same. Government has no place in assigning wealth quotas.
Employers???? C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. That's a rip off and with the use of the threat of off shoring the American employee is forced to shut up and take what ever crumbs are offered or else. No wonder Americans live in stress and fear and you get workplace massacres - a record of them happened under Bush.
That's a rip off and with the use of the threat of off shoring the American employee is forced to shut up and take what ever crumbs are offered or else. Barry's had more than two years to address the problem. Done nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
Given that we saw more private sector jobs created in the last 12 months than in the 8 years of Bush, facts aren't your friend.
You can post all the slanted graphs you want, but media matters action org is a partisan organization. Everything they post is going through the spin. *FAIL*
go65, please continue to "post all the slanted graphs you want", per Rudgear. It seems the right wing Conservative Republicans have not mastered spreadsheet charts and are at a disadvantage.
Translation: keep posting gentle spin cycle for the benefit of the uniformed. Left wing Democrats have not mastered reality or challenged their deepest held prejudices and are at a disadvantage.
EXCELLENT. Deserves repeating!
I love how they defeat their own argument with every post they make.
go65 provided a graph proving his point and you guys have not. You lose. Also, the information in those graphs are not biased. We did not lose as many jobs after the stimulus package - and we did lose those jobs before the stimulus package. Why do you deny this fact as a 'left wing plot'? You guys have not been able to defend any of your positions with actual facts/numbers/empirical evidence.
Oh,BullBarack! It's just like those bogus polls you idiots are always producing. Full of pretty colors and pictures,and entirely lacking in substance. There is not even the slightest hint of how they numbers were acquired,what they mean,how they compare to the numbers and population bases of other countries,or even what they mean in THIS country. They are HEADLINE charts,graphs,and polls. Nothing more. All bun,no meat. Just one glaring example is there no mention of the annual income of typical working class American. You want people to look at the incomes of multi-billionaires and compare them to the typical American worker without giving out any information on the wage scales of the typical America worker. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the typical lower 6 figure income American working family because some other family earns 10 or more times as much? You socialist/communist/fascist fools are always destined to be unhappy because you ALWAYS focus on what other people have instead of appreciating what you have. Your own greed and envy destroy any attempt at happiness you would ever have had.
Here’s How John Paulson Made $5 Billion Last Year Some of Paulson’s personal share in his funds must come from the $4 billion he made going short against the subprime mortgage bubble in 2007. blogs.forbes.com/robertle...made-5-billion-last-year/ The median household income in the United States is $46,326. Here in California people have a hard time understanding that yes, 50 percent of our population live on $46,000 or less a year. Even today, all the elixirs and remedies being thrown around fail to focus on income and the big brother of income, solid employment. Dual earner households have a higher median income at $67,348. www.mybudget360.com/how-m...household-income-numbers/ Your typical working American family's income with two earners is $67,348 a year, compare that to John Paulson's $5 Billion. Less than 20% of American families earn "the typical lower 6 figure income" or above.
There are no replies to Comment # 111. End Trace Mode for Comment # 111.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestBy the next election cycle, Orlov figured, the United States would be in the throes of a "banana republic" such that the voters would exchange one inept political party for another inept political party while expecting different results.
#2. To: Godwinson (#1)
(Edited)
distribution of wealth
#6. To: jwpegler (#2)
And the historical solution that the leftists always employ is to make every equally poor, except of course for the party apparatchiks who get to control everything.
#10. To: lucysmom (#6)
(Edited)
Good, that's just what your masters want you to think.
#13. To: jwpegler, lucysmom, Ibluafartsky (#10)
Joseph Stalin, Nicolae Ceauescu, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, and countless others... History is very clear on this. Very clear.
#15. To: Godwinson (#13)
America's wealth disparity makes America very USSR like since all the power and wealth resides in the top 1%.
#18. To: Rudgear (#15)
If you think you are not getting your fair share, educate yourself and make yourself more marketable to employers. Everyone else can do the same. Government has no place in assigning wealth quotas.
#22. To: Godwinson (#18)
#25. To: Rudgear (#22)
(Edited)
Barry's had more than two years to address the problem. Done nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
#28. To: go65 (#25)
#34. To: Rudgear, go65 (#28)
You can post all the slanted graphs you want
#36. To: Godwinson (#34)
#37. To: Rudgear (#36)
Translation: keep posting gentle spin cycle for the benefit of the uniformed. Left wing Democrats have not mastered reality or challenged their deepest held prejudices and are at a disadvantage.
#38. To: Capitalist Eric (#37)
#41. To: Rudgear, Capitalist Eric, go65 (#38)
I love how they defeat their own argument with every post they make.
#97. To: Godwinson (#41)
go65 provided a graph proving his point and you guys have not. You lose.
#111. To: sneakypete, GO65 (#97)
Are we supposed to feel sorry for the typical lower 6 figure income American working family because some other family earns 10 or more times as much?
Replies to Comment # 111.
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