Well, everything except the treason part, of which China would be happy to buy.

Why are so many US Billionaire buying up places abroad?

For that matter, why are so many Asian Billionaires buying us property?

The reason is the same, to the 1% countries are merely bordellos offering all the perks of royalty, but NONE of the responsibilities. We are just a stage.

They at least answered or believed they answered to God and their Church.

But Wall Street answers to no one.

... for future arguments with my conservative friends (they like both catchy phrases and shiny things). Spot on!

They bought Washington so they could piratize, break up, and sell off the pieces of the USA.

Perhaps even our opinions.

Every progressive country in the world has a more 'liberal' trade policy (and much more trade) than the US has. Yet their unions and middle classes are much stronger than ours. In their countries "trade policies" do not "wipe out the gains that regulatory change" does bring. Why will they wipe out ours if we trade much less than they do. Are we that "exceptional"? I doubt that we are.

Being a member of the global society and trading with other members is not the end of progressive society. In fact, it is a part of being a progressive society as envisioned by FDR and as practiced in progressive countries today.

I did. Germany, France, Austria for starts.

They appear to have very open trade policies. But their tax policies are different from ours. They have high VAT taxes. The VAT taxes are imposed equally on imports and exports and raise revenue for social programs. They tax wages and have single payer health insurance systems. Their health care costs are lower than ours. They take longer vacations that we do. They work more efficiently. It is harder to fire Europeans than it is to fire Americans. The fact that it is so easy (at will employment) to fire Americans and that our unions are so weak makes for a lot of chaos and a lot of inefficiency in the workplace. It also means that our workers take less pride in their work than, say, German and Austrian workers. Even when it comes to training, Europeans outspend and out-train and out-educate us. And in most European countries, a higher education is free for those who are qualified to get it.

So, trade policies are not everything. That's a very general statement that is true. It's the policies that some other countries have adopted that make their trade less harmful to their people and their economy than ours is.

We are basically not ready to trade in the world. Not as long as we have libertarian types like Paul Ryan and racists like so many of our Southern Congressmembers to hold back the kinds of developments and social programs we need if we are to adjust and compete in a world economy.

Enlightenment. That is what is so missing in our conservative members of Congress. Many of them are just stupid. They have no experience in life. They don't understand the world, not science, often not law. They bring the country down.

I hope you listen to Bernie's Madison speech. It's great. Here it is.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017275952