Fareed Zakaria

[Malacite]

This guy is amazing. His new show on CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPS is very insightful.

I've been reading his book, The Post American World




He really puts into perspective the challenges the world faces this century. Terrorism is a threat that needs to be dealt with, but it's astonishing how much the media hypes it up. The USA (and the world) has much bigger problems to worry about than small groups of assholes set in old ideologies who are resisting modernity. (The Muslim world has been the slowest to accept it, but even they are starting to wake up and say "I'm tired of living in dirt. I want what the West has." and as such are looking down upon radical Islam more and more)

I'd also like to note that at one point in time the Muslim world was the cultural and scientific center of the world.



Also, here's his interview with Obama from last Sunday.


Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com


Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com



Just more proof that Obama really has the best handle on all this, and Mc Cain is just too set in old thinking. He actually wants to make a new G-8 without Russia and China... good lord what an idiot.

[Taskmage]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

If in two weeks Obama has the same position on something has he does right now, maybe I'll agree that he has a handle on something. But I don't trust a guy who can shift from "immediately end the war in Iraq" to "immediately begin withdrawing troops from Iraq" to "immediately ask military leaders to begin strategizing a withdrawal from Iraq" while claiming his position hasn't changed from day one. It just shows how impulsive and malleable his convictions are. He's got ideals all right, but that's all he's got.

Iraq is bad. We get it. Everybody knows it. But making these brazen assertions of what he can or cannot do in the Middle East without any firsthand information, that's idiocy.

Edit: To Obama supporters reading this, I respect your prerogative in choosing your preferred candidate. I don't agree with you but I don't think less of you for your choice. But starting a thread with "McCain ... what an idiot," a statement almost guaranteed to offend half its politically active readers just rubs me the wrong way. If we had trolling rules it would be banned. The statement reads to me somewhere between lolpld and lolcreationists on the distastefulness scale, with the bottom limit already being unacceptable.

[Neomage]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

I'm with you Malacite. I have been trying to tell people for a long time that the U.S.'s Golden Age is long gone, but most of them won't listen. 20 years ago if you went to India, everyone would ask you about the American Hot-Shots. Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, and other people like them. Now? You'll be lucky to find somebody who has even heard of them. There are Indians with over five times as much money as Donal Trump, and they are not the only ones. Larger corporations in China have so much money now they practically own the government. Why everyone thinks they are still communist, I have no idea. They are more capitalist then we are right now. Japan is leading the technological revolution, with gadgets like the iPhone already obsolete 10 years ago over there. They have satellite T.V. on their phones now! Germany has more manufacturing power then the U.S. since we disbanded most of our manufacturing sector and started outsourcing everything. The glory days of the U.S. are long gone, but most of us still think we can push everyone around like the big kid on the block, and it is making a lot of other countries grow spiteful of us.

I might move to Norway...

[Malacite]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

Mc Cain really does have the wrong idea on a lot of issues though. I'll concede "idiot" is offensive, but I stand by my point. His ideas are really, really bad. Fareed talks about in his book how the G-8 will soon become irrevelant, along with the U.N.


The days of the few rich Western Nations directing the directions of the world stage are coming quickly to an end. The "Golden Age" for the USA in particular is gone, but the USA is still the world's super power and a necessary one. It's just that other countries are rising quickly (China is the 4th largest economy in the world now, but is still leagues behind the USA in almost every respect. India is actually set to overtake it too, and it's Bollywood is actually bigger and better than Hollywood now.) and as such want to have more of a say.

The misconception is that the rest of the world hates America. The Reality is it's become indifferent. With their economies growing rapidly, modernizing counties are having an increasing role in the world stage and are no longer content to just sit by and either follow the U.S. or stay out.


Fareed talks about this and a lot more. It's not all bad either, it's actually a good thing. True, the USA won't have as much economic weight as it has in the past (the kind of power and influence it's had in the past is unprecedented and is evidenced best by the war in Iraq; being able to invade a sovereign nation against international law with zero reprecussions.) but it is still and will continue to be a driving force in the world.

The key is for Americans to wake up and smell the coffee. The world is a different place and it's high time you all pulled your heads out of the sand and realized you're not the most important people in the world. At no time in the world's history as there been so much shared prosperity across the world.



Anyway I could go on for a while about what I've read so far. Seriously, get the book and inform yourselves on just how the world's changing.

Alan Greenspan's "Age of Turbulence" is another great read, and explains just how each economy really works in the world, and how the USA became to be so rich. It also points out how all this outsourcing of jobs, like terrorism, is being blown out of proportion by the media. Companies are making record profits, but the wealth isn't being properly distributed.

Americans are among the most productive workers in the world, but do not get the treatment they deserve from their employers. Sweeden and Japan both have much higher employee satisfaction. Oh yeah, and as for the 1990's, Bill Clinton basically had a wondeful economy (Greenspan's baby) handed to him. It's a little known fact that Bill actually gave bigger tax breaks to CEO's than Bush did.

[Neomage]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

McCain ranked 894/899 in his graduating class. He almost flunked out of school. As someone who greatly values education and intelligence, I would rather not have someone like that leading our country.

[Feba]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

but most of us still think we can push everyone around like the big kid on the block,

We can. Like the big kid on the block, it doesn't matter that we're stupid or not particularly useful to society. We're the ones with the big guns. We have a long history of getting involved in other people's wars, not to mention starting them. Doesn't mean we should, though.


Taskmage: Do you really want to get people started on McCain doing complete 180s on many of his policies and such in the past few years? I mean, Obama might not be concrete, but at least he has a direction.

I mean, don't get me wrong, Malacite's political ideas are so out of touch that I have no problem saying that they're more based in whatever fad he's interested in at the moment, but McCain is not the lesser evil here; or more reliable.
______________________________

McCain ranked 894/899 in his graduating class. He almost flunked out of school. As someone who greatly values education and intelligence, I would rather not have someone like that leading our country.

And how many years ago did he graduate? How much has he learned since then? How much has he CHANGED? Plenty of people who were horrible students for one reason or another (poor life situation, poor study habits, just plain being irresponsible) have changed greatly since then. I mean, the man's in his 70s, right? That's half a century since he's been to school. Likely anything he would've learned there would be far out of date by now anyway. Devil's advocate, I know, but you seriously have to consider his age here-- not necessarily because it brings him experience, but because his education was simply too long ago to judge him on.

[Raydeus]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

Mc Cain makes 720° flip flops in 180° increases depending on who he is talking to that day (and he even tells flat out lies as he sees fit to do so).

Obama can adjust his position on something if there's a good reason for it, huge difference.

For instance, he opposed the surveillance law last year because it was unacceptable for him, they then made several changes to it, and while Obama wasn't really satisfied with the new law the changes made it reasonable enough for him to vote for it. To at least have some of that protection in place.

All this while making a compromise to revise the law at a later time to see if it's working as intended and do whatever changes are needed with more time.


Mc Cain says "Well we have to negotiate with Hamas eventually anyway" then some time later he says "zomg Hamas is teh ev1l of the internetz and... and... oh look! Democrats want to negotiate with Hamas!!!" and of course both candidates never ever said anything about Hamas. He then finishes it off with "Man Democrats are such liers and flip floppers".

Yup McBush is a sure bet.




Edit > On topic, with so some economies growing so fast (I still think China's growth comes from a slavery-like economy but I digress) if the US doesn't stop living in the past it almost certain it will lose it place of dominance. The only thing I'm afraid of is that in cases where the US needs a boost they tend to invade someone and we (and Canada) are too freaking close. >_<

[Feba]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

(I still think China's growth comes from a slavery-like economy but I digress)

And where do you think much of the US's growth was?


HINT HINT, TOBACCO AND COTTON, HINT HINT

[Raydeus]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

Yep, long ago I started thinking about how similar today's China's economy is to the old slavery days in the US.

The problem is this time it isn't just 1 country getting wealth out of it, but many countries are already addicted to this cheap labor (but mainly the US) without even realizing how much damage they do to their own economies.

All the money China is making right now used to stay in the US because of the labor, but now not only companies can't go back, but they are starting to feel the effects of all that money they have exported overseas.

[Feba]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

The problem is this time it isn't just 1 country getting wealth out of it, but many countries are already addicted to this cheap labor

So the US didn't export things? Interesting!

[Cometgreen]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

Americans are among the most productive workers in the world, but do not get the treatment they deserve from their employers. Sweeden and Japan both have much higher employee satisfaction. Oh yeah, and as for the 1990's, Bill Clinton basically had a wondeful economy (Greenspan's baby) handed to him.

Yeah, Greenspan was great.

Except for, you know, the mess he created for us today.

[Raydeus]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

So the US didn't export things? Interesting!

...


You know what it mean. XD

[Malacite]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

Yeah, Greenspan was great.

Except for, you know, the mess he created for us today.

Wrong. The American people created this mess. Al Gore had a plan to eliminate the national debt in 2 years. And the USA built up it's fortunes through ingenuity Feba, not the slavery. Just like Europe did before it, the USA for decades has long been about searching for new ways to make money/efficiency, along with a previously unsurpassed automotive industry.

Look at GM now though, the company is going bankrupt. The Bailout they need is over 3x the value of the company stock. But there are a lot of factors attributed to this;

1) Rising Health Care Costs

2) Going back to making bigger, less efficient cars

3) Japan's unfair trade policies and devaluing of their currency (which is something that's illegal in most western countries)


The USA still thankfully has some economic leverage that it needs to start using before the other countries in the world start eating away at it's influence more heavily. China holds a lot of the USA's national debt, but guess what will happen to their economy if suddenly they can't sell their goods in the USA? I guarantee you that the Chinese will feel it a lot harder than Americans. Also, let's look at what fareed refers to as "Resource Rich Nations" which are getting a "Free Ride" in the current economy (this includes Canada, though we're "more responsible" than the others.) Specifically, Saudi Arabia.

They get a passing grade on terrorism because of all the oil they have. But what if some day the USA manages to ween itself off of foreign oil completely? (this HAS to happen at some point btw or the country will really be in trouble) Suddenly you have these royal Arab families unable to sell nearly as much oil as they could before. China and India will still be purchasing staggering amounts, but you're going to find these "rich" nations suddenly finding themselves much poorer, and the people will riot. These countries have got to get with the times and more actively and appropriately engage in the world economy.


Speaking of which, I really hate people like Lou Dobbs. The other night he was just up in arms (what else is new?) over Obama suggesting that Americans should be learning Spanish. On the one hand I agree that English should be made the national language, as part of a national identity and because it's the most common language across the globe now (Mandarin isn't far behind though). However, speaking multiple languages in an inter-connected world is very much an asset, and with the way cultures are mixing these days it's completely asinine to not even try. No one's mandating Spanish, or pulling the BS they did here in Canada with French, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to get kids to try and learn more of the languages that are in widespread use. Especially when you consider the top 4 Economies (in order) are the USA, Germany, Japan and China.


Oh and Feba, the USA is quickly losing it's ability to just do as it pleases on the world stage. In the coming decades, incidents on the scale of the sheer bull shit that was the invasion of Iraq will see far greater consequences amongst the international community. Sanctions might even disappear altogether.

[Cotners]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

Wrong. The American people created this mess. Al Gore had a plan to eliminate the national debt in 2 years.

Everyone has a 'plan'.

[Raydeus]

Re: Fareed Zakaria

And the USA built up it's fortunes through ingenuity Feba, not the slavery. Just like Europe did before it, the USA for decades has long been about searching for new ways to make money/efficiency, along with a previously unsurpassed automotive industry.

Nah, the US does indeed have a talent to take oportunities and profit from them, but all the capital the country used to invest in those oportunities came from slavery and theft, the same way all the land they have came from genocide and war.

The US isn't a country of people who likes working from zero, they take the resources from others and then they use their skill to profit from it, which is way faster.


The only reason people deals with the US is because they have money, just like some kids would hang out with the rich bully at school, but if the balance of economic power shifts to asia then not many countries will want to hang out with the US anymore.