It seems strange to me that, although, if I were an American voter, I would have voted Republican, this time, however, I simply had to go for Obama. Mitt Romney, somehow, did not impress me and the far right stance of his running mate, Ryan, was a bit frightening.
One must consider that the Vice President is but a heart beat from the Presidency.
The difficult times Barack Obama had during his first four year term will not become much easier, since the Republicans in the House of Representatives outnumber the Democrats 233 to 193.
Everything will depend on Obama's ability to convince some Reps of the 'rightness' of his plans and also on some Republicans to show a willingness to compromise their stance for the good of the country.
Then, and only then will it be possible to pass through Congress new and progressive legislation respecting Health and Welfare as well as Education.
I believe that the difficulties will happen in Internal Affairs and not so much on the international stage.
*******************
Let me put the financial situation of the USA and China into some perspective, driven by a rational examination of some numbers and not by an emotional America-bashing as practiced by many Europeans.
The Gross Domestic Product of the USA amounts to 14.447 Trillion US Dollars.
Second ranked Chinas GDP comes in at about 5.739 Trillion US Dollars
The average annual GDP per person in the USA amounts to about US$48,500.00
while the average citizen of China produces approximately US$8,500.00 annualy.
The USA owes a staggering 16 Trillion Dollars to a variety of creditors:
Currently, publicly held debt amounts to 11.411 Trillion US Dollars (about 72% of GDP).
Debt owed on an 'Intergovernmental basis' runs at about 4.850 Trillion , for a combined Total of the above mentioned US$16.261 Trillion.
Only (?!) about 5.3 Trillion Dollars (46% of Public Debt) is owned by foreign investors, with China and Japan leading International creditors with about 1.1 Trillion Dollars each. China therefore holds about 6.7% of the total Debt. Therefore I say to those who claim that "China could buy America tomorrow" : "Do your Math and think before next you utter nonsense.
Clearly, this level of debt is not sustainable for a future fiscal course.
If any country has the capability to extricate itself from such a situation, the United States of America must be considered a likely candidate.
(the above financial information was taken from Wikipedia)
This, in any event, is the considered opinion of
Bertstravels.
2 comments:
I'm not sure where you got that US income number but my wiki page says that the median income of 25years and over is 28grand - not 48.
Hi Lianne
I am not talking about median or average INCOME, but average GDP per person. In this paragraph I am talking about GDP,which in this context makes more sense when linked to the population number. In other words the GDP per person.
Post a Comment