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I wouldn’t. I don’t think of it as my country any more.
I turned 18 when Reagan was president. I was working in my dad’s health food store in Santa Cruz. Our customers were leftier than left, and the buzz was about Ronald Reagan re-instituting registration for the draft. Dozens of our customers knew my 18th birthday was approaching, and if they expressed an opinion, it was for me to protest by resisting registration. After all, it was only six years after America’s pullout from Vietnam.
I registered at 9:05 a.m. on my 18th birthday. At the time, I was extremely proud to be an American, and would have joined the military had I been called up.
Not any more. I don’t recognize this country, I’m not proud of this country, and I wouldn’t want either of my sons to participate in the military. I’m like the 72% of Americans who would not be willing to volunteer to serve America in a major war. For me, I don’t trust the politicians who run the military or administer this country, for that matter.
Why aren’t Americans willing to fight for their country anymore?
Audaces fortuna iuvat
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I think the turning point for me came about two decades back. I had my house appraised by a British woman. We started conversing, I asked her how she enjoyed America, and she loved it, of course. Who wouldn’t?
One of the things she liked about America was that her two sons were not citizens and were therefore protected from any kind of conscription. They grew up under the blanket of liberty that our armed forces provide, yet there was no way she would expose them to that kind of danger.
GR, who has an immigrant daughter in law if memory services, once claimed that immigrants will protect us in the military. Sure, a very small percentage do. Immigrants today account for 13.7% of the population, about triple that (4.8%) in 1970. About 5% of the armed forces (68,711) are foreign born.
I think immigrants are great, they add a great deal to our country, and our forbears all came from somewhere else originally. Much, much less so in the military than in other walks of American life.
I had already been souring on the development of this country. When succeeding presidents, of both political stripes, created policies that sent American jobs overseas, and the American middle class started to vanish…let’s just say I understand why Trump succeeded. I sure don’t agree with everything the man says or does…but I understand his appeal.
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Speaking of the middle class…..
Elizabeth Warren says her wealth tax will "rebuild America's middle class." Amusingly enough, that's true! The reason the middle class has been shrinking is not because more people are becoming poor, but because more are becoming rich. Her tax will reverse that trend. pic.twitter.com/WJnp4YQRvv
— Paul Graham (@paulg) March 26, 2024
Still, inflation has eroded the middle class in America. There’s no choice but debt for most risk averse families.
Government expenditures are now about 25% of GDP, a non-WW high. Without debt financed growth in G (government expenditures for non-economists), the economy would not be growing. But we’re more politicized than ever. Why? Because when the government becomes the most important part of the economy, each fight over who controls the government becomes that much more important. And when the politicians see citizens as revenue streams rather than customers, there’s no end to what the state is owed.
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“Would I fight for my country”?
Only under very narrow circumstances. i.e. an invasion.
The US now only fights in limited far away wars designed not to win and with vague if any end games. Or proxy wars. They do it almost continuously. Who needs that? If you haven’t noticed the time between the last plane out of Afghanistan and the beginnings of our serious meddling in Ukraine was August 16 2021 to roughly Jan 2022. 6 months.
As to the draft I was one of the last people drafted. I can assure anyone that no one really cares about your service. Sometimes someone will thank me for my service but by and large your service means nothing. VA benefits. Some schooling money. My home state sent me a Vietnam bonus of $50.
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Government expenditures are now about 25% of GDP, a non-WW high. Without debt financed growth in G (government expenditures for non-economists), the economy would not be growing. But we’re more politicized than ever. Why? Because when the government becomes the most important part of the economy, each fight over who controls the government becomes that much more important. And when the politicians see citizens as revenue streams rather than customers, there’s no end to what the state is owed.
Zeihan’s take is that our demographic shift means we’ve gone from consumer consumption by the Boomers, GenX and Millenials to a saving economy as the large part of the population retires. Here’s his take on American demographics and its effect on the economy:
His comment towards the end of this video is instructive…as America’s manufacturing base reshores, companies will need to attract workers younger than in college…and younger than in high school, that middle school will become the source of choice, somewhat like the German model:
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The US gov't debt machine is truly out of control. The US (lhs) runs a budget deficit that's more than twice as big as Canada, Euro zone, Japan & UK combined (rhs). More important, the US – unlike everyone else – funds all this with very short-term debt (red). What are we doing? pic.twitter.com/JlbgJpF4Yy
— Robin Brooks (@robin_j_brooks) March 29, 2024
Then why the war on saving? Proposed wealth taxes, increased capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, getting rid of Prop. 13 in California, and most importantly inflation all punish saving. There’s even a proposal to tax capital gains when securities and property is transferred upon death, instead of resetting the basis upon the transfer. The government wants you dependent on Social Security, which is really inefficient, but funds deficit spending.
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