

point of no return

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At some point reality sets in and it becomes evident that no matter how much Americans might want to see dramatic, positive changes come to this country the chances of that happening are quickly disappearing; the die is cast. That's the reality of living in the America of today, a nation that many astute, respected observers firmly believe is in a protracted state of decline.

A point of no return is that time or stage when a series of actions or a process reaches a point beyond which it becomes impossible to reverse. America has now become a nation that gives every indication that it is rapidly approaching that point of no return -- or has already passed it. Dramatic changes have come to this country in recent times but far too many of them have proven to be negative and damaging.

This is not some kind of baseless conjecture, the facts speak for themselves. The changes that have taken place in this country are not subtle but, rather, have been very dramatic and not in a positive way. America is just not the country it once was and, while we can dispute that notion, it's just happens to reflect reality.

Here is just one more of the many articles on the internet that measures and ranks the quality of life in countries around the world. In these rankings America clearly lags behind a great many nations in a host of important categories, from inequality, education, poverty, quality of health care for all citizens, to job creation, infrastructure condition, ecosystem sustainability, personal safety and numerous others.

What could be a better illustration of this decline in America than the following? The U.S., which was the creator and developer of the internet, now ranks, as this article states, "a disappointing 23rd in access to the Internet." That fact is supported by this statement from CitiesSpeak.org: "The United States was one of the world leaders on broadband penetration in the 1990s, ranking fourth among other developed and developing nations. But by 2006, the U.S.'s standing slipped drastically." And, further "a report of countries with the fastest internet speeds shows that the average speed in the U.S. is about 616 kbps (a dismal 26th ranking); drastically slower than in South Korea, which topped the list at an average of 2,202 kbps."

The evidence suggests that many countries with far lower GDPs than the U.S. use their wealth and resources for the good of all their citizens not just for those who occupy the top rungs of the income spectrum. How in the world can America, with the largest GDP in the world, have the greatest inequality of wealth and income among the developed nations?

There is a three letter word, WAR, that best describes what has been happening to this nation. The U.S. government has been involved in three major wars since 1960 that have, collectively, totaled 36 years with costs in the trillions of taxpayer dollars. And even after those colossal failures we now find ourselves in the midst of another contrived War on Terror that shows no signs of letting up. By now it should be more than obvious that this obsession with war is what generates massive profits for those who fuel its engines.

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