Worried about the future of the U.S....

[harley]

Personally I think that when China suceeds well enough to develop a proportionally large middle class their gov't will be spending so much time trying to stem the tide of freedom that they won't have time to take over the world. Sort of a governmental version of the square-cube law.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

add to that mix their population size & current economic status of that population. even if they bring up 1 billion people into middle class (any precedents for that?), they'd still have to support a poverty-mired population the size of the u.s.a.

huge capacity, huge responsibility, huge obstacles. whatever happens there it will be impressive.

[youbet]

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny

This kills me. More americans are killed on our roads every year than died in the vietnam war.

I dont drive that much, since everything is nearby...but every day I see a dozen people do ridiculously dangerous things with no net benefit or gain to themselves.

People drive like they're flying a plane in Top Gun. Their downside is maybe getting a ticket for a couple of hundred bucks every few years.

I agree with your points but, for accuracy, "More Americans are killed on our roads every year than died in the viewnam war" is not true. Thank goodness!!

BTS | Table 2-1: Transportation Fatalities by Mode

[cute fuzzy bunny]

For further accuracy, about 12k of the listed killed in the vietnam war were due to accidents and other non combat causes. Once you take those out, the two numbers are right in the ballpark with each other.

Regardless, the point stands. Idiots, careless people, and people driving dangerously kill as many people as a major war. Every year.

What do we do? Work on seatbelts and air bags...presume we're going to suffer the damage and try to mitigate it. We dont teach and test better, we dont take problem drivers off the road, and we dont thoroughly enforce one of the worst and most persistent instances of loss of life.

I think we oughta replace the air bag with an explosive full of nails pointing at the driver. That'd certainly cut down on the nutty driving a little bit.

[Gardnr]

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny

This kills me. More americans are killed on our roads every year than died in the vietnam war.

I dont drive that much, since everything is nearby...but every day I see a dozen people do ridiculously dangerous things with no net benefit or gain to themselves.

People drive like they're flying a plane in Top Gun. Their downside is maybe getting a ticket for a couple of hundred bucks every few years.

Yep, exactly so. Tailgating has become the normal way of driving. Unfortunately I really don't think that most who do it really understand just how dangerous it is and how much risk they're exposing themselves to.

A little basic physics course is in order!

[samclem]

I don't think the US should be seriously worried about competition from any centrally-planned economy.

[youbet]

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny

For further accuracy, about 12k of the listed killed in the vietnam war were due to accidents and other non combat causes. Once you take those out, the two numbers are right in the ballpark with each other.

I bet your mommy made you take years of dancing lessons as a lad cuz you sure are a dancer today!

[youbet]

Originally Posted by samclem

I don't think the US should be seriously worried about competition from any centrally-planned economy.

I was going to make a comment about how one of our pres candidates wants to lead us towards more gov central planning of the economy, but this thread doesn't really need to go to the soapbox section, so I won't.