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<p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">The numbers tell us America is in decline… if not outright collapse.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">I say “<em>the numbers tell us</em>” because I’ve become very sensitive to the impact this kind of statement has on people. When I warned about the impending bankruptcy of General Motors in 2006 and 2007, readers actually blamed me for the company’s problems — as if my warnings to the public were the real problem, rather than GM’s $400 billion in debt.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">The claim was absurd. But the resentment my work engendered was real.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">So please… before you read this column, which makes several arresting claims about the future of our country… understand I am only writing about the facts as I find them today. I am only drawing conclusions based on the situation as it stands. I am not saying that these conditions can’t improve. Or that they won’t improve.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">The truth is; I am optimistic. I believe our country is heading into a crisis. But I also believe that… sooner or later… Americans will make the right choices and put our country back on sound footing.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">Please pay careful attention to the data I cite. And please send me corrections to the facts. I will happily publish any correction that can be substantiated. But please don’t send me threats, accusations against my character, or baseless claims about my lack of patriotism. If I didn’t love our country, none of these facts would bother me. I wouldn’t have bothered writing this column.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">I know this is a politically charged and emotional issue. My conclusions will not be easy for most readers to accept. Likewise, many of the things I am about to say will challenge folks to re-examine what they believe about their country.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>The facts about America today tell a painful story about a country in a steep decline, beset by problems of its own making.</em></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">I am speaking out now because I believe someone must. And I have the resources to do it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>I am sharing these ideas because I know we have arrived at the moment of a long-brewing crisis.</em></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">Our political leaders, our business leaders, and our cultural leaders have made a series of catastrophic choices. The result has been a long decline in America’s standard of living.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">For decades, we have papered over these problems with massive amounts of borrowing. But now, our debts total close to 400% of GDP, and America is the world’s largest borrower (after being the world’s largest creditor only 40 years ago)… And the holes in our society can no longer be hidden…</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">We’ve reached the point where we will have to fix what lies at the heart of America’s decline… or be satisfied with a vastly lower standard of living in the future.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">How do I know? How do I statistically define the decline of America?</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">The broadest measure of national wealth is per-capita gross domestic product (GDP). Economists use this figure to judge standards of living around the world. It shows the value of the country’s annual production divided by the number of its citizens. No, the production isn’t actually divided among all the citizens, but this measure provides us with a fair benchmark to compare different economies around the world. Likewise, this measure shows the growth (or the decline) in wealth in societies across time.</p>
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<p><br />Read more:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://dailyreckoning.com/the-corruption-of-america/#ixzz1hK2illVj" style="margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; color: #003399; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Corruption of America</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://dailyreckoning.com/the-corruption-of-america/#ixzz1hK2illVj" style="margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; color: #003399; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px;">http://dailyreckoning.com/the-corruption-of-america/#ixzz1hK2illVj</a></p>
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