The twilight days of Pax Americana and its coming fall

[lukeneyland]

Money has always been a mental construct, existing as a manifestation of thought and will.

That’s only true for the last century. It used to be backed up by a quantity of gold giving it tangible value

 

[05_never_again]

That’s only true for the last century. It used to be backed up by a quantity of gold giving it tangible value

...and gold only has value because people think it does. Same thing.

 

[tntar heel]

Полноценный коммунист пинко прямо здесь.

Only on the snout!

 

[85SugarVol]

That’s only true for the last century. It used to be backed up by a quantity of gold giving it tangible value

What gives gold its value?

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

Money has always been a mental construct, existing as a manifestation of thought and will.

Nope.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

That’s only true for the last century. It used to be backed up by a quantity of gold giving it tangible value

Gold, silver, salt, fur, sea shells... anything that people found value in and a store of value for trade...

 

[lukeneyland]

What gives gold its value?

Aside from the obvious it’s particularly useful in constructing computer circuitry

 

[lukeneyland]

...and gold only has value because people think it does. Same thing.

That’s not true gold was originally sought after for reasons beyond it’s scarcity. It’s probably the metal that lends itself best to being crafted. If gold doesn’t float your boat pick another metal. I can think of eastern societies that based their currencies off things such as iron and bronze. The point is that the idea of currency has not always been a “construct”. The practice of Fiat money hasn’t existed for more than 200 years. I think the North first dabbled with it during the civil war. Gold now has more practical applications than ever due it being used in computer circuitry

 

[lukeneyland]

Gold, silver, salt, fur, sea shells... anything that people found value in and a store of value for trade...

Salt was a big one. Romans used that for a long time. I believe that’s where we get the term salary from

 

[85SugarVol]

Aside from the obvious it’s particularly useful in constructing computer circuitry

It is not Gold’s industrial or decorative use that gives it its value.

 

[OrangeTsar]

Possibly.

I'm not wishing this to happen, but things are moving in that direction. We simply can't live amongst one another anymore.

Not totally true. If we could use federal funding limits to remove the woke socialist teachers from American schools and Universities and start basic civic education again, we could maybe restore a constitutionally literate voter population again. The indoctrination going in since the 1970s can be undone. But we are going to have to either a) out some standards on what is and isn’t taught (like we are seeing with CRT now) or b) massive shift to home schooling or parochial schools (support school choice legislation EVERY CHANCE you get). In any case, the teachers unions have to be defanged and state legislatures have to get control of their state colleges and universities. Massive housecleaning needed

 

[OrangeTsar]

Same claims have been made since this country started.

The battle between good and evil IS eternal you know

 

[VolStrom]

Полноценный коммунист пинко прямо здесь.

So do you think we teach the Russians Spanish, English or they teach us Russian? To be honest, I find their alphabet much harder to understand than Chinese.

 

[lukeneyland]

It is not Gold’s industrial or decorative use that gives it its value.

It’s not just those things . It’s a combination of those things plus it’s scarcity. But scarcity is not a “construct” scarcity is basic defining factor of economic behavior. My original point is that currency used to backed by a physical asset (making it not a societal construct). Be it salt, bronze, iron, gold or grain my point is still the same.

 

[OrangeTsar]

We should be judging our military on lethality.

Lethality is not the ultimate metric. The ultimate purpose of the military is to impose our Will on our adversaries. That can be done in many ways including occupation of territory, destruction of industrial capacity, or economic disruption. General Sherman basically destroyed the Confederacy through destroying the Will of the South to resist and he did that by breaking our economy. Lethality is, of course, a very effective tool for destroying the enemy’s Will to fight though I will agree

 

[OrangeTsar]

US policy in the East has to start with encirclement and containment of CCP expansionism. We need to greatly strengthen our relationship with Japan and India, and to an extent, Russia. Taiwan must also be supported and strengthened unreservedly. I would say we need to work with Australia too but their police state now is more toxic that China IMHO.

 

[lukeneyland]

Lethality is not the ultimate metric. The ultimate purpose of the military is to impose our Will on our adversaries. That can be done in many ways including occupation of territory, destruction of industrial capacity, or economic disruption. General Sherman basically destroyed the Confederacy through destroying the Will of the South to resist and he did that by breaking our economy. Lethality is, of course, a very effective tool for destroying the enemy’s Will to fight though I will agree

I understand what you are saying. But out of arguments sake I think what Sherman did was less relevant to our defeat than you credited to be. I think we lost more due to exhaustion of resources and man power. I suppose burning Atlanta deprived of us some that but had we sufficient resources to carry on the fight I expect that we would have. and that Sherman may have only strengthened our resolve had that been the case. Was Atlanta a major industrial city at the time ? I know most of our domestically produced artillery came from Virginia and maybe Birmingham

 

[lukeneyland]

US policy in the East has to start with encirclement and containment of CCP expansionism. We need to greatly strengthen our relationship with Japan and India, and to an extent, Russia. Taiwan must also be supported and strengthened unreservedly. I would say we need to work with Australia too but their police state now is more toxic that China IMHO.

Did you see they are confiscating people’s financial asserts over breach of virus protocol. And we are the fascist lol

 

[Freiwillige]

Here's a depiction of what the U.S. army was like in 1944.



Now we have Emma and her "Call."

 

[85SugarVol]

US policy in the East has to start with encirclement and containment of CCP expansionism. We need to greatly strengthen our relationship with Japan and India, and to an extent, Russia. Taiwan must also be supported and strengthened unreservedly. I would say we need to work with Australia too but their police state now is more toxic that China IMHO.

Australia’s domestic concerns are not ours. They made their bed.

My only concern with the Aussies is how quickly they can get their fleet of Virginias up and operating in the waters around Oceania.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

Not totally true. If we could use federal funding limits to remove the woke socialist teachers from American schools and Universities and start basic civic education again, we could maybe restore a constitutionally literate voter population again. The indoctrination going in since the 1970s can be undone. But we are going to have to either a) out some standards on what is and isn’t taught (like we are seeing with CRT now) or b) massive shift to home schooling or parochial schools (support school choice legislation EVERY CHANCE you get). In any case, the teachers unions have to be defanged and state legislatures have to get control of their state colleges and universities. Massive housecleaning needed

That is putting a band-aid on the problem. The entire public school system (primary, secondary and university level) needs to be blown up. And remove all govt student aid for colleges.

 

[OrangeTsar]

That is putting a band-aid on the problem. The entire public school system (primary, secondary and university level) needs to be blown up. And remove all govt student aid for colleges.

You might just be right. What we have got now isn’t working

 

[lukeneyland]

That is putting a band-aid on the problem. The entire public school system (primary, secondary and university level) needs to be blown up. And remove all govt student aid for colleges.

That last part is partially responsible for why even average colleges like mine are so expensive. The schools know they’ll be paid by either us or the government

 

[Freiwillige]

Here are some other nations' military recruiting ads.

Even Serbia is better than the U.S.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

That is putting a band-aid on the problem. The entire public school system (primary, secondary and university level) needs to be blown up. And remove all govt student aid for colleges.

They are going to self-implode it appears anyways. They are destroying themselves.

America's Public Education System Is Collapsing As Teachers' Unions Force Schools To Close | ZeroHedge

Parents aren't only worried about logistical problems like child care and supervising remote learning: they're starting to worry that the drastic cutbacks to educational services during the pandemic will leave their children permanently behind. Keep in mind, in China, students are spending more time in school, not less.

Remote learning is simply too much for most parents, especially single parents. If it becomes permanent, then pretty soon it won't just be teachers abandoning public schools - parents might move students to private schools or charter schools.