A Pollyanna with his feet firmly on the ground?

[Brigid]

In this week's NEWSWEEK, there is a fascinating excerpt of "The Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria. Never having heard of him, I was expecting gloom and doom, or at best cautious hope for the future of this country. Imagine my surprise when I found a great deal of well thought-out optimism instead. Check it out here:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135380

[OwnedByFerrets]

1. Someone please correct me if I am wrong....

but I believe Mr Zakaria is a frequent guest of Mr Thomm Hartman. If I am correct, he is very well informed and in touch with progressives.

[GetTheRightVote]

2. A Post American World, we to end this type of thought and become #1 again

I hate it when they talk as if we only matter a little bit,
we need to find ways to become the dominant force again.
I am to loyal to my nation not to wish this on it.

[Brigid]

3. OK, so . . .

when did Limbaugh join DU? :wtf:

[Lerkfish]

4. he's been on the daily show many times: very sharp guy

[Brigid]

5. Hmm . . .

Then how is it I've never seen him before? Guess I don't watch as often as I should.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. This is him on The Colbert Report...

[Warpy]

6. It's a very good article, but I do have one quibble

He doesn't think the US will fall into the trap that befell other former superpowers, that of becoming "rich, fat and lazy." The truth is that this country (not its people, the country) started to do just that in the 1970s when industry was exported to countries where people could easily be exploited, freeing us here to dabble (so the theory goes) instead of sweating our lives away in hellish factories.

Unfortunately, it coincided with social net stinginess, so dabbling meant working more than one dead end, low paid service job for people who had previously held unionized and well paid factory jobs. With an oversupply of labor, wages were easily suppressed and people substituted debt for income.

Now we have a population suffering neglect brought on by the fact that they are no longer necessary to the economic machine and that is what is shown so clearly by that 81% of us who think the country is on the wrong track.

We don't want to live in a rich, fat, lazy country. We want work that sustains us in every way, and that is what all would be leaders need to recognize first and foremost when they make their grandiose plans.

[Brigid]

7. Hey, we survived *, didn't we?

That gives me some hope that we won't fall into the aforementioned trap. ;)

[Warpy]

8. He's got eight months left

I wouldn't count on our survival just yet.

Besides, they survived, too. Just what did they have left, though, and how many wars did they have to endure before they stopped their rich from dictating how fat and lazy they were to become as nations?

The fact is that our nation needs a complete turnaround from this process, which is rather the point I made.