[sailingdog]

Unfortunately, much of the world looks to the USA to bail them out, whether it is militarily or financially, and we have done both many times, in many places... and most of them seem to forget what assistance we've rendered over the past 100 years...

As an example, one reason the Japanese steel industry is kicking the crap out of the US steel industry is that we basically rebuilt their entire infrastructure following WWII. Their steel industry is based on what we built there in the 1950s... while our domestic steel industry is still stuck with what we built there in the 1930s... Most of the Japanese auto industry was involved in the Japanese war efforts—Mitsubishi made the Zero fighter/bomber... etc.. yet we didn't destroy those companies, which would have been well within our rights after Pearl Harbor.

Also, consider that many of the countries that we compete with economically, spend very little on national defense and have little or no standing military, because WE PROTECT THEM. Yet, do they contribute a single penny towards our protection of them... NO.

So trash talk about the US all you want... but just remember... when push has come to shove, no other country in the world has done more for the world than us. That's one reason why, even when we have political leaders that are loathed world wide, the American people are generally not. Our country isn't perfect, but it does a hell of a lot better than most others do.