America is rotting from within and no one seems to care
By SilentPatriot Tuesday May 13, 2008 5:50pm
(photo via AP)
While we continue to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into Iraq, a study over at Scholars & Rogues finds that that money is desperately needed here at home, as our infrastructure is literally crumbling from beneath us.
S&R: (h/t Mike Sheehan)
The United States has much more than failing bridges to find, fund and fix. The proposals of the remaining presidential candidates do little to inspire faith that they understand the breadth of the problem or have the political skill, will and courage to address it forthrightly.
In December, a commission established by Congress in 2005 under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act—A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) provided the sobering statistics. The United States needs to spend $225 billion annually — more than twice what it does now — for the next 50 years. That’s more than $11 trillion worth of fix-ups on surface transportation systems alone.
Although stump speeches filled with rhetoric about bridges and roads may not be the "sexiest" thing a pol can talk about, the reality is that our country is falling apart. And without the infusion of funds and the commission of a major public works program, things are only going to get worse.
yeah, but i wanna be the first to comment on the Edwards endorsement. :(
but this is important, and tragic.
Privitization's a-comin'...
of course, hillary wants to have a summer gas tax holliday, funds which go to repairing infrastructure
so come on hillbots....when that bridge you are driving on collapses...show your love for the crazy bitch by dying with a smile on your face, cuz you saved a whole 18 cents at the pump
And people want to know why I don't honor the national anthem when I go to sporting events.
This is one of many reasons... every day, this country gives me the finger.
uncle joe hussein mccarthy @ 4:
While I agree with the general sentiment of your post, calling Hillary a bitch was uncalled for. Besides, there was an article earlier with her stating it was now ok to vote for Obama instead of McCain.
Edwards for Obama! :-)
Bush's plan was public works for Iraq, never mind us. The jobs there don't have to be properly done, they don't have to be completed, maybe not even started. Precious little oversight, huge profits.
Corruption on a massive scale.
Let the commuters who commute every day to work pay for their own infrastructure! I like toll roads so they can see the real cost of their gas guzzling
habits! Americans always love to complain about paying the real cost of their bad choices. There are many hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq so these
asshole Americans can keep making the same brain dead choices. Screw them!
uncle joe hussein mccarthy @ 4:
Disagree all you want on whether the gas holiday is right or wrong but do not lie and say that she is taking funds from repairing bridges and roads. She has gone on the record saying that those funds would not be touched.
Repug!
Pretty soon we will be a turd world nation...
Let the roads crumble!
Our car-based transportation system stinks anyway. Lets not rebuild the existing infrastructure, let's build a new infrastructure! The most cost-effective place to lay high speed rail track is on the already pitched and graded highway beds. With oil at $200/barrel within a couple of years, will any of us really want to continue wasting our lives sitting in traffic?????
I can't wait to see those freeways and bridges being dismantled for the scrap steel and aggregate. All while enjoying a beer in the comfort and safety of an American-built railroad car going 200+ mph.
Chris Gamble @ 9:
Partially true I guess, I believe she mentioned something about taxing the oil co's excessive profits to cover that, but who realistically believes that would fly with bushit doing the decidering.
and our air, food and minds are more polluted by the minute
milquetoast @ 10:
sooner then you think!
Time to lay high speed rail down the interstates. Screw pouring more money into the black hole of the interstate highway system. I know unions and construction companies like the planned obsolescence of the highways, but even if they come up with a car that runs on stupidity, there just isn't enough room in metropolitan areas for each individual to get in a car to go out and eat at Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's or whatever other God forsaken restaurant choice awaits them in their hellish exurb. Oh look at me. Construction companies and workers can get payed to lay train tracks, too.
Thank you, to all those stupid people that started this nightmare in 2000. At least I'll get to see the rise of the U.S. to unparalleled heights, and complete destruction, in my own lifetime. W-destroyer of the best place on this planet
Alex NYC @ 11:
Agreed! I am SICK of subsidizing the oil and vehicle manufacturers with all the road building to make it easier to drive. Enough already!!!!1
is that snarky enough?
Put KBR in charge and all bets are off.
I'm moving to Iraq. Seems all the jobs are over there anyway.
America is rotting, but let's distinguish cause from effect.
The problem with bridges is effect.
GWB, pustule that he is, is effect.
Here's a cause (for example). Sirhan Sirhan was tackled 4-6 feet in front of Bobby Kennedy. The bullet that killed Bobby was fired from very close range behind his ear.
Cover-up.
Build bridges. Make great speaches. Sing Kumbayah.
But know that if you build a bridge or other stucture on a rotten foundation, it will will fail.
tyree @ 14:
we already are an IDIOCRACY!
Silent patriot said,
"In December, a commission established by Congress in 2005 under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act"...
I say, ...any "commission" ...that was established by congress...
...is worthless
although I don't doubt for a minute that our federal gas tax of 18 cents a gallon is probably being used for war...
I this congress should investigate where our gas tax money is being spent!
My state upped its/our gas tax 10 years ago...and I will admit we(my state) has been actually building alot. (on our own state roads of course) ...interstates excluded...
The federal govt does seem quite lacking though...
our gas tax is being used for war
Alex NYC @ 11:
Tokens and turnstiles and security cameras huh?
...moooo,baaaaa,neighhhh
not for me man...I'd rather get a moped!
Welcome to the USSR, boys and girls. Men go to the gulag entrance on the right, women on the left. Hail our General Secretary, CCCP, and remember: in Soviet Russia, bridge fall off you!
Damn. I knew roads in Louisiana were bad, but it's that bad? Funny, I thought wingnuts insisted on our wealth and power. These roads are an indication that something smells in the United States. The fall of the Western Empire was motivated by increasing autocracy and decay of caring for the people. With those as only one part of the combo, the swarming of Germans in the Volkerwanderung was all but inevitable. And this still ignores major problems that even if these are fixed, we're fucked.
Yay, back to the Dark Ages, with no Byzantium to keep old knowledge for us, this time.
all hail the hypno toad @ 6:
"Besides, there was an article earlier with her stating it was now ok to vote for Obama instead of McCain."
Gosh, after all the jabs, race baiting and compliments she heaped on herself and McCain I guess it was the least the crazy bitch could do! And YES, I do think the name's called for after the way she handled herself in the past several months! And her failing to reign in her husband was a calculated ploy to keep her own hands clean! Who's she trying to kid!
This has to be one of the most important posts I have seen in a long time.
While we argue the virtues of Obama and Clinton, we are watching the media give a total pass to McCain and his desire to carry out a third Bush term...all the while our country literally crumbles beneath us.
By all means, let's funnel more of the US Treasury into the pockets of the cronies of the current pResident in the White House.
Let them eat cake...and drown in the rivers when the bridges collapse, in the sinkholes which devour us, in the debt that will remain for decades.
Thank you for this post.
Alex NYC @ 11:
We need more public transportation. My daughter is commuting 200 miles a day to keep a paycheck coming. She would have to put in a 12 hour day to use the train, which she would do willingly if it the schedule was broadened. The problem then is, how do you get from the train to the office without bus transportation. Our freeways are like parking lots and there's no relief in sight for years and no caps put on building more and more homes with no thought to how many more cars will feed on to the same freeways.
Our infrastructure is in bad need or repair, yet the boy-king and his neocon butt-buddies threaten to veto or filibuster bills with "earmarks" for highway and bridge projects.
the nth @ 15:
Alex NYC @ 11:
Agreed.
The *one* good thing we can salvage from the Interstate Highway Boondoggle - the roadbeds for high speed trains.
And since some amazingly high percentage of the US population lives very close to the Interstates - voila! - a very effective transportation system emerges.
And jobs!
And profits!!
And then .. the pleasure of riding on a train instead of battling traffic!!!
WooHoo!!!!
Because our next president will bring them home like yesterday, does not mean the finances that are currently being expended on this GW war will suddenly cure this country's financial problems. Those troops that have been recruited to strengthen the military will still have to be accounted for financially. those thousands of soldiers that will be coming home physically or mentally wounded will still have to be cared for. The millions and millions that we owe to foreign countries will not be magically erased. We will still be responsible for those debts. Hey, middle America, in your own phraseology, Now the Chickens are coming home to roost. And guess who is going to twisting on the spit. Don't blame Iraq. We attacked them, we destroyed their country and killed literally thousands and thousands of their citizenry. Now we want to blame them for our woes. Think again, middle america. you can think if this is said slowly and in small soundbites on Fox news. right?
In the meantime, the Senate addresses More Important Matters:
Specter’s Floor Statement on New England Patriots Videotaping
Somehow I look at this post and I think of the fall of Rome. Something is not right in this country, and I have my doubts as to whether we will take note of this fact in time for it to do any good.
But perhaps I'm just being pessimistic.
Definition of justice: A bus-load of neo-conservatives driving onto a collapsing bridge.
Adam Franklin @ 32:
I tend to agree. The Caesars of Rome were always confident that first Jupiter, then Sol Invictus, then Jesus would preserve them. Around the time Romulus Augustulus was deposed they figured out they were wrong.
However, if the US experiences a Fall of Rome scenario, there won't be a Byzantium to save our sorry asses, so we'd actually be worse off than the Western Empire. Happy days, no?
Or we could sue the oil and auto corps into allowing us to use light rail and public transport.
America's crumbling, has a few bumps and scratches? Do the American thing: sell it, and make a few bucks.
In no particular order.
1.) war criminals (un-do their unconstitutional laws)
2.) stop bailing out failed banks.
3.) wall street criminals
4.) un-outsource everything
5.) un-do all the snooping crap
6.) un-install all electronic vote tabulation devices
7.) un-deploy the troops
8.) un-oil (use HHO and other fuels and make smog/EPA recognize new fuels)
9.) legalize pot
10.) clean up dark part of government
11.) find out what really happened on 911
12.) un-crap our food (HFCS to cane sugar)
13.) un-crap our infrastructure (what happened to the engineers?)
14.) jobs, education, un-crap the schools
15.) un-crap the fed
16.) un-crap the (insert random screwed up thing)
and yet instead of launching a massive public works project to get the economy going bush sends everyone a check that they can use to buy more junk from china at thier local wal-mart. i am told that bush has an MBA from harvard. i guess they give them to any drunk with money.
that $600 check was actually a $1500 loan, $900 of which to bail out Bear Stearns
READ, then Sign the financial petition
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
This will be blamed on the Democrats anyway.
I know I don't care. This country deserves all the crap that comes its way. America's combination of unmatched arrogance and stupidity is finally proving to be its undoing.
apathy is what they count on.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a politician who's concerned with infrastructure? Do they still do that any more?
General_Rennenkampf @ 34:
There are some 200 theories why the Roman Empire tanked.
The same could probably said for the demise of the Spanish, then France under Napolian and then the British Empire.
One fact is common . Each so called Empire, had estabished a basically corrupt central government and then went bankupt ( or close to bankrupt ) from continual military crusades.
Lets say Spain did not send the Spanish Armada to England ( dumb move).
Lets say Napolean did not invade Russia ( dumb move).
Lets say Britain did not sent their army to all corners of the globe in the 19th century to protect the investments of the privledged British aristocracy ( many dumb moves) .
Then came WW I and the game is over.
Corporations are not sacred. Neither are countries.
maybe now people will consider the streetcar as a viable alternative. commuter trains are good for suburb/work travel, but we also need a good alternative for closer travel. the bus system, at least the one in my area, is sadly becoming part of the problem.
You don't seriously think this administartion and the Republican controled Congress care about something like that do you?
"America is rotting from within and no one seems to care"
Methinks that sounds theistically admonitory.
Terrible @ 47:
Only if the rims on their BMW's get bent. Then it's a problem.
I think many care - a LOT. But there is a limit to the number of complex catastrophic problems the human mind can focus on, analyze, and attack at the same time. Rather than serving as an indicator of indifference and/or incompetence, the lack of attention to this problem on the part of the candidates is a testament to the breadth and depth of the disaster the last 7 years has wrought on us. (It can also serve as an illustration of the way voters will not demand solutions until problems have produced immediate and severe discomfort, as well as an example of the complete lack of commitment to their traditional role from our new Megacorporate Media.)
Money isn't really the whole problem, lets take my home state, New York State - in Western New York, not New York City - back when I-90 (aka the Thruway) was under construction the people were told that by 1997 the Thruway would be paid for and the tolls removed. It's 2008 and..... the tolls have been raised yet again. Yet the Thruway is in just as bad a shape as the rest of the infrastructure in the country. Sure, we're getting screwed, and living in Western New York pretty much means paying for New York City and not getting jack shit back. But we've been paying for our stupid highway and it's still a piece of crap.
SCHRODINGER'S CAT @ 45:
You're on the right track, however a big part of the collapse of Rome and civilizations before about the late 18th Century (when industrialization really kicked in) was the abuse of the natural environment. Industrialization does not make such collapses stop all together, it merely extends the life of a civilization, often with worse effects.
Unfortunately, most people tend to ignore all the big, flashing danger signs while singing in the acid rain.
I realize this risks name calling and the regurgitation of smear factoids, but it should be noted that Ron Paul did/does make this issue a part of his rhetoric. For all the ways he may be too right-of-center for most readers of this blog to thoroughly like, he gets credit for this one.
I believe his words are along the lines of---Why are we paying money to blow up bridges in Iraq, then paying to rebuild those same bridges when our infrastructure at home is crumbling?
_
who needs roads when you cannot afford gas. $10/gal soon and then $20/gal not to far away. trains would be nice.
Considering that the American people by and large stood back and turned a blind eye while the Bush administration poured billions upon billions of dollars into the money pit called the War In Iraq year after year without holding their feet to the fire and insisting upon at least a halfhearted attempt at accountability...well, with all due respect, what the @#$%^&* did they expect?!?
And Mc Lamo and HRC propose to waive the gas tax this summer, which would cost billions--billions that we need to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. What an utter fraud and hoax on the taxpayers.
bmw H. 528 @ 56:
beamer, correct me if I'm wrong here but HRC's plan was to make the Oil Industry pay the discounted tax, right?
I don't know about McCain's plan.
I am tempted to agree that allowing some of the infrastructure to degrade while the price of gas continues to rise will eventually drive people out of their cars. However, the state of public transit varies from poor to abysmal and their would be significant lag time before the needs of all the suburbanites could be accomodated. Not that that's an excuse for our current circumstances. A failure to invest and infrastructure and public transportation is the same as doing nothing to maintain your home while at the same time failing to save for a new one...eventually you are left in a rundown shack with no hope of moving out.
Take care of this country or lose it. It's really very simple.
And as for Bluestocking: the American people have been monumentally deceived. And the Democratic leadership has turned a blind eye to the election fraud and the lies and the media. I hope with all my heart that real brains are going to prevail.
mudshark @ 57:
Not sure about HRC shifting the tax burden to the oil companies---can anyone clarify that? Mc Lamo's program was a straight taxpayer financed giveaway---every .01 reduction costs the treasury 1 billion dollars. We tried a program like it here in IL several years ago and it had little meaningful impact as the state government had no effective way to make sure that retailers actually passed along the savings to consumers. More often then not---they didn't.
The Reagan Revolution steamrolls on, with the infrastructure crumbling in part because the public has been led to believe that "big government is bad" while money that ought to be used to restore it is being poured into the military, police, and prisons, and the public barely cares because they "support the troops" and have been brainwashed by two decades of "Cops" shows and their spinoffs. Woo-hoo!
Check out this...
http://www.tmacog.org/TransportationMeetings/Passenger_Rail/April_08/Lig...
http://www.tmacog.org/TransportationMeetings/Passenger_Rail/April_08/Age...
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Who Will Tell the People?
*
E-MAIL
* PRINT
* SAVE
* SHARE
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: May 4, 2008
Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I’ve had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it’s this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman
Go to Columnist Page »
They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper — that we’re just not that strong anymore. We’re borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore. Our generals regularly tell us that Iran is subverting our efforts in Iraq, but they do nothing about it because we have no leverage — as long as our forces are pinned down in Baghdad and our economy is pinned to Middle East oil.
Our president’s latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.
We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”
That’s why Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous defense of why he did not originally send more troops to Iraq is the mantra of our times: “You go to war with the army you have.” Hey, you march into the future with the country you have — not the one that you need, not the one you want, not the best you could have.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.
How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans.
And us? Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in “downsized labs, layoffs of post docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that shies away from the big research questions.” Today, she added, “China, India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere.”
Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.
Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.
I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”
It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth anddignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”
Check out the light rail proposal
www.tmacog.org/Transportation/councils_committees/pass-rail_comm.htm
Clintons plan would require the oil companies to pay the tax during the proposed Gas Tax Holiday. Obama likes to claim otherwise but he knows he's telling a lie when he says it. Of course if he becomes president, he can take care of all the infrastructure problems by giving no-bid contracts to his dear friend Antoin Rezko!
Gay marriage gay marriage!!
Stop them thar gays a'marrin!
Yeehaw!!!
Does anyone remember the Mike Huckabee's economic stimulus plan was not some bullshit "send a $300 check to everyone" but rather to inject billions of dollars into the American economy by initiating a massive federal government led effort to rebuild America's Highways and railroads? It would creat milliions and millions of jobs while at the same time revitalizing our decrepit infrastructure. Sounds a lot like the New Deal doesn't it?
Unless it involves a no-bid contract from Halliburton the republicans will filibuster it.
bmw H. 528 @ 60:
As I remeber it there was an effect from the Illinois reduction in the state gas tax: the state nearly went broke.
Too much sprawl.
We need higher density
Public transportation needs to be a central focus.
We need New Urbanism.
We can't be spending money on infrastructure, not when those same dollars could be more lucratively spent invading and colonizing innocent countries, stealing their resources and killing their brown people....all for the profit of Corporate Amerika! Come on.
In my opinion, American needs undo a mistake made in the 1950's... we need to shift our efforts back to our country's rail systems, and scale back on the highway system. It is clear that we have already reached the zenith of automobile use. A dollar goes a lot further repairing or maintaining rails than is does on a highway. The railroad is also a much more efficient way to move things (including people) around the country.
"Gusset plate" has become a familiar term here in Minnesota. Another bridge across the Mississippi in Minneapolis has been closed subsequent to the interstate collapse. A busy bridge to the NW in the city of St. Cloud (sort of far metro if we ever get the commuter rail up) has been closed. Another one between MN and WI in the far SE metro is sort of "pray and drive" and is being replaced years earlier than they had planned. Would that have happened if the local news hadn't run stories showing the rust rot on the beams? Our McCain campaign co-chair of a governor is currently playing chicken with the legislature on half a billion dollars of federal mass transit money we just might lose for another commuter rail project. One of our state legislators, seriously I understand, suggested labeling our bridges "red, yellow and green". I guess it's a personal responsibility issue. If you voluntarily choose to cross a red bridge, you deserve what you get.
Not so glamorous in 21st century America, is it? I think I want the European Dream.
Has anyone here ever heard the old Italian proverb that,"Fish rots from the head"?Well, that pretty much sums up this country with the rotten heads of government we have in Washington-trickle down decay.
BTW, My theory about the indifference to the infrastructure is that future roads will be built by foreign owners,leased for a hundred years,and paid for by Americans with toll fees paid to the foreign corporation. The toll roads in major areas are already set up this way. If you want more info on this set up,an excellent source is World Net Daily,who is one of the few sources who has done yeoman's work writing about the selling off of highways to foreign investors. (Rudy Guiliani is involved in the Trans Texas Corridor).If you go there,you also might want to type in Nafta Corridor and Highway Robbery. Quite a revelation,but explains a lot of the footdragging on repairs.
Maybe it's just me but... trains???
This is basically 18th century technology. Faster and cleaner maybe, but not by much. And when the train breaks nobody goes anywhere. Single point of failure. No good. Not to mention that it would require massive restructuring of our infrastructure. Trains only go two directions and require transfer stations, hubs, turnstiles, security, and maintenance. They do not fit the city structure for probably 95% of the country
The answer is probably this simple: Highly fuel efficient self guided hybrid vehicles. They would be powered and charged by the road itself on the interstates and most major roads and would switch to hybrid self-power on back roads. This would result in a huge drop in carbon emissions. (provided that the power for the road is being generated in a clean fashion) All driving on interstates would be self guided with a combination of information from the road itself, GPS and on board sensors. Let go of the wheel and enjoy your coffee and interwebs. (provided along with the power...) Traffic is managed by the system and slow downs and stop and go traffic is significantly reduced or eliminated. If the system goes down the cars coast to a controlled stop and everybody switches over to manual. We have the technology to do this already, but we need the money to spend on the infrastructure.
Our infrastructure is not only roads and bridges but also water and wastewater treatment plants and piping, and stormwater management. All of it is crumbling and needs maintenance and replacement.
A gas tax holiday would decimate funding for transportation-related funding which would then take money away from fixing the rest of the infrastructure.
It is time we stopped being the world's police and started looking at the third world country we are becoming.
@Roman Empire:
Yes, as I have stated before the similarities are definitely there. And it is not restricted to the government but throughout all levels and every aspect.
Just a few examples:
Huge military industrial complex. The Romans were 'defending' themselves from outside threats all the time and needed a huge army and navy. More and more territories were invaded and when just in case a friendly group of people had something the empire wanted, a reason was fabricated. Back then war was also very profitable.
Military made up of poor and foreigners. If they survived the military they were awarded citizenship.
Leading families. Rome was basically governed by three families.
Senators belonged to the top class.
Fascist system where your rights depended on what status you had.
Sports were major distractions from politics.
Generally the government did not care much about what the people did as long as they did not threaten the government, paid their taxes and were more or less happy.
(remember those of importance were only adult male citizens. Women, children, slaves and soldiers did not count and had no rights. Unwanted babies were simply thrown into the trash.)
So the rich were not drafted and therefore they help make the people happy.
Most grand buildings were built further ones own prestige. Similar to today.
The road system built was done so that troops could be moved around faster.
Need I mention that the Senators and the rich and powerful contained the same people?
And the deals and contracts were spread out among themselves.
The US more or less has always just worked. The government screwed over the people and the people did not care as long as they were getting by and thought their 'freedom' was still in tact.
KCThinker @ 77 :
The US being the 'worlds police' is a lie that has been repeated so often it has virtually become true.
Fact is, that the reason the US has been invading country after country is to further it's own goals, NOT to help the people there. Sure the reason given might have sounded nice but the truth was not.
What happened in Iraq is just another example of how the US works. Either support a current dictator or help create one. If removing the dictator (and replacing with a new one) would be better for the US, it invades.
Saddam started a US supported invasion of Iran, gassed the Kurds and his own people and even the invasion if Kuwait did not stop US support.
Up until the US realized it could use the incident to a) replace Saddam and b) station troops in Saudi Arabia that would further the older and more important goal of keeping SA oil flowing. After the '70s oil crisis the US government will take all measures to make sure it does not happen again.
Panama and Haiti are other examples.
If by an odd chance a democracy breaks out, the only reason it is allowed to continue is that it does not show signs that it could become a problem.
The US does not to stuff without seeing some gain in doing so. Thus every action's motives must be questioned.
Ohio Proud @ 62:
Or as it affectionally call it...New service routes on the REX-84 Express!