RIP America
 

This thread is to commemorate the glory days gone by of the unique experiment that was the United States of America.
Within a handful of days we saw the demise of two Great American things: our ambitions to explore outer space, and our AAA credit rating.
10 years ago nobody would have thought it likely to see these two bastions of what is good and right about America disappear. Many would have called it impossible. In fact many of the things which once made America great are fading during our lifetime and often without even great objection.
It's a sad, sad story.
But, as with those who lived in Rome before the fall, I'm terrifically happy to have seen it. We've been front-row to one of the greatest shows Earth has put on. Granted we caught the tail end, but we saw it nevertheless.

Tremendous post. I couldn't agree more about America's best days being behind her. There are just so many negative economic factors in play, it's hard for me to imagine America ever having as good of an economy in our lifetimes as the ones we've already seen.

The only way this will not hold true is in the event of some type of total system overhaul. It's really hard to envision a revolution of that capacity taking place.

I recommend reading The post American World, by Fareed Zakaria. It has helped me tremendously in understanding the massive shifts that are taking place in the world.

http://www.nubblies.net/forums/pictu...&pictureid=574

The sky is not falling.

FC, you should buy this. I would fucking love to, but a bit out of my range atm. It's a $20 bill from 1928, the last year that our currency was anchored to the gold standard (after that, we switched to bills like this one which were backed by various regional federal reserve branches, as noted on the bill).

1928 $20 Twenty dollars Gold certificate note coin bill | eBay

Am I wrong for thinking a $20 gold certificate from 1928 is worth $20 as a currency in 2011? I think they're still legal tender, but for a long time they were not. AP might be off base here.

I was wondering earlier myself if they are legal tender or if their trading value is based solely on their intrinsic value as a piece of history.

I've been saying the American empire would end in our lifetime since I was in high school.

The prosecution would like to point out that you are a fucking chimp. You can't take both sides of an issue and then claim "I fucking called it"

Exhibit A:
http://www.nubblies.net/forums/pictu...&pictureid=575

Now, given your tendency to try playing lawyer lately, you can skip the song and dance about the space program weighing in your decision to make the above "I called it"

The prosecution rests.

As legal tender, if it can still be used, it would be worth $20. The value to a collector could be much higher.

Right. What I'm saying is: if one of them sells for $65, does that put the intrinsic value of the bill at $65 or $45?

This leads me to believe that not only are they still valid currency, but that you can actually redeem them for $20 worth of gold from federal reserve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...ty-dollar_bill

I would really love to own one of these:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ertificate.jpg

DDT, you are arguing two different things. Figure out what you are trying to say and try again.

What two things am I arguing exactly? I said that you are a fucking chimp because you decided to claim that America is now a defunct empire after the credit rating downgrade where you had previously stated there would be no impact from our nation's credit rating being downgraded ... whats the confusion?

This is not true. Nixon killed this in 1971.

What appear to be a very little known fact. The U.S. was on the Gold Standard for maybe 30 years total in its history. It was brought on to help insure against the great depression (late 19th century) from happening again. Some economists have said that the gold standard in Great Britain and the U.S. helped prolong the second great depression.

On the lighter side, been trying to get Mrs. Pancake into see a doc today. Her PCP can't see her for another 2 weeks. Another place she used to go can't get her in until 3 weeks. The place I go can't get to new patients until October. Very Canadian, but considerably more expensive.

Nothing did happen on August 2nd. The stock market DROPPED the day the big bad debt ceiling was settled. I've been saying for years on this site that we can't continue on our current course and even just quoted myself again in the investments thread blaming our politicians for it all. To further prove my point, we settled the debt ceiling problem and our credit rating dropped anyway. Don't you get it? It didn't matter. We are broke. Soon, our creditors will come calling and we'll have to cut our entitlement programs and since we've become an entitlement society, we won't give those up. I really think this will all lead to the U.S. either becoming an isolated country with few to no financial allies or we will go to war with China over all of this when we just decide to say "Fuck you, we aren't paying."

It would appear that other countries are far more fucked than the US. In fact it's possible that 100% debt to GDP may be possible and in fact the norm. Japan is over 200% and chugging along just fine.

List of sovereign states by public debt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now, back on topic. As this thread is to commemorate the good which has passed and not the crap that we have now.

Maybe this will inspire some people:

I think this is overly dramatic. We didn't cut the space program, we cut the shuttle program. For now, I say good. The economic environment of this country has really sucked for about four years now. It's expensive to send people into space. Space is a miserable, unforgiving slut of never-ending proportions. Let's just focus our attention on sending unmanned vessels into the vastness. Vessels that can do anything a manned shuttle can do and more. A satellite can go further and is more resistant to the extreme conditions of outer space. All for a fraction of the cost.

I should add this qualifying statement. I say good "for now" because eventually I would like to continue sending astronauts into space. That is, when we find a reason to send people out there.

I would hope that cutting the shuttle program only included actually sending astronauts into space. If NASA is no longer doing research on new shuttle technologies and training astronauts, then this is a terrible tragedy. My point is that, until we find a better method of sending manned shuttles to space, we shouldn't be sending them. We should absolutely be researching better ways to send humans into space.

LOL, they are?!? Take a peak at the Japanese stock market over the past 20 years.

http://www.nubblies.net/forums/pictu...&pictureid=576

Also I clarified that lawyering "nothing happened on August 2nd" is a cop out ... you're a fucking chimp.

Last night the London riots spread to south london. A department store in battersea, where I live, was busted open and ransacked. Our gym closed early and we were all advised to walk home in groups.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Cliff notes on why there are riots please.

Not really a good answer to that. Someone got shot by a cop last thursday in tottenham (N. London,) there was a peaceful demonstration that got out of hand sunday, now the rest of the city is taking the opportunity to cause some havok. But it doesn't seem to have a lot to do with the thing in tottenham, people just want an excuse to riot. Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here, it's getting harder and harder and harder each and every year.