Don’t write off America

US errs so often that it’s easy to miss the fact that it is fundamentally right

Yair Lapid
Published: 01.05.08, 16:00 / Israel Opinion

Next week, President George W. Bush will arrive here. A convoy of black limousines will make its way through Jerusalem, and he will say all the right things – American presidents always say the right things, that’s why they have speech writers. After that, he will evaporate out of our lives without us understanding why he even came here or what he said.

After that, as always, we will be left with the discussion on America’s decline and the end of the era of global hegemony. China is the next big thing, in India there is a new middle class that comprises 200 million people, in London real estate is more expensive, and in Frankfurt the euro buries the dollar every morning. The United States has turned into a wasteful, hedonistic nation lacking a spine. Three hundred million people who consume more than they produce, and in order to finance this party sell their country chunk by chunk to two billion people who are thinner, more diligent, and live on the other side of the world.

There is only one problem with this theory: We heard it before. In the 1980s, China was called Japan, and everyone was convinced it is about to take over America. Investors from Tokyo acquired the famous Rockefeller Center in New York, and Akio Morita, Sony’s legendary founder, wrote a fascinating book called “Made in Japan,” where he explained that America’s main problem is the system. He argued that American CEOs only care about the next quarter’s results and the year-end bonus. In Japan, one can find long-term planning that will always win ultimately, he argued.

Ever since then, Japan sank into a 20-year recession. Sony hired an American CEO to revive it, and the US broke any economic record ever held by any country.

This is because at the end of the day, we all tell the American tale. We speak its language, our computers (even if they were produced in Taiwan) work based on software it invented, our heroes come from its movies, and the democratic code that rules the world was written by its founding fathers. We hum American rock ‘n’ roll, wear American jeans, eat American burgers, and later go on an American diet to burn it. For better or for worse, America is the second homeland of most citizens of the world.

More at:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3490453,00.html

I think he is a little confused about Obama but other than that it's a nice read.

The Japanese got greedy and with their US dollars they tried to buy America....remember the mad rush to buy all the largest buildings in all the cities? Japanese business believed their own press...bad bad business model, much to Harvard Business Schoolish!

On the other haand the Chinese and the Indians do not want our buildings or for that matter our land...they want our piggy-bank...and it looks like they may very well get it, the government and financial groups seem to be blithely aiding them in the effort.