Geopolitics

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Originally Posted by Turbulent_Dragonfly

USCIS got all the money they wanted, probably north of a couple of hundred million dollars, in the past few months. Now they can go ahead and claim that since they have all those new applications, they have to up the service times. In reality, a fee-based service provider handles that by increasing the amount of resources to handle the extra load. Companies providing web services increase server and bandwidth capacities during peak times. Mobile operators increase available channel bandwidth by providing temporary towers around major sporting and other mass gathering events. This is not reinventing the wheel, but they get away with this because there is no accountability and we are at their mercy. Immigration is of course a privilege and not a right as they will helpfully remind us if we protest. We are just pawns in a bigger game.

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Well said. In a country where $$s can buy you judges, law, and virtually anything, they have managed to isolate immigration from that influence in such a way that no amount of money (including that spent lobbying the same corrupt politicians and not just the thousands in legal government fees) cannot overcome the built in exploitation and disregard for rights of immigrants. That too in a country where they gave voting rights to land owners to the exclusion of others in not too distant past. The racism is so fundamental and intentional to the structures and systems they have built that you have to admire the American propaganda machine that has fooled so many in the world for so long.

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Originally Posted by Positive

Well said. In a country where $$s can buy you judges, law, and virtually anything, they have managed to isolate immigration from that influence in such a way that no amount of money (including that spent lobbying the same corrupt politicians and not just the thousands in legal government fees) cannot overcome the built in exploitation and disregard for rights of immigrants. That too in a country where they gave voting rights to land owners to the exclusion of others in not too distant past. The racism is so fundamental and intentional to the structures and systems they have built that you have to admire the American propaganda machine that has fooled so many in the world for so long.

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Your anguish is genuine but your assessment is incorrect. America is by and large a fair country. If backlogged candidates make the right efforts this will be solved quickly now.

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Originally Posted by qesehmk

Your anguish is genuine but your assessment is incorrect. America is by and large a fair country. If backlogged candidates make the right efforts this will be solved quickly now.

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I think the descendants of enslaved Africans, mostly wiped out native Americans would beg to differ. The systemic and continuing exploitation of their land and labor is a testament to the hypocrisy of the shining city on the hill. So would the legions of people whose countries have been devastated by the American military-industrial complex. And I could go on.

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Originally Posted by Positive

I think the descendants of enslaved Africans, mostly wiped out native Americans would beg to differ. The systemic and continuing exploitation of their land and labor is a testament to the hypocrisy of the shining city on the hill. So would the legions of people whose countries have been devastated by the American military-industrial complex. And I could go on.

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Did you rush to immigrate to Africa or a country of native Americans or waiting in queue to be a permanent resident in the country developed by so called exploiters?

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Originally Posted by Positive

I think the descendants of enslaved Africans, mostly wiped out native Americans would beg to differ. The systemic and continuing exploitation of their land and labor is a testament to the hypocrisy of the shining city on the hill. So would the legions of people whose countries have been devastated by the American military-industrial complex. And I could go on.

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I love history and I agree with the facts you mention. It's your conclusion that I am not quite in agreement with because you fail to see that the entire human history is full of violence and that wealth is a function of freedom and justice. In other words without freedom and justice US wouldn't be the empire it is today.

Human history has been a continuous journey from "natural justice" - where order of might prevails - to "human justice" - which rejects darwinism and aims to protect the weak and share the fruit in order to improve our lives. The places that have most successfully shared fruit have unleashed prosperity better. The poor countries are poor for most part because of injustice inherent in those societies.

So while fully agreeing with every fact you mention (and I would add vietnam, drugging of blacks and irish in LA and boston, destroying latin america and many many things) ... and despite all of this I think US is a more just country compared to almost every other country in the world.

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Originally Posted by AceMan

Did you rush to immigrate to Africa or a country of native Americans or waiting in queue to be a permanent resident in the country developed by so called exploiters?

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Indians also went to many places in world (mainly african continent and caribbeans) and had trade relations with those even before Europeans arrived but we did not try to rule those nations due to either lack of will or lack of organizational capabilities.

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Originally Posted by AceMan

Did you rush to immigrate to Africa or a country of native Americans or waiting in queue to be a permanent resident in the country developed by so called exploiters?

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How is this relevant. I have tried but don't see any logic in this question.

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Originally Posted by qesehmk

I love history and I agree with the facts you mention. It's your conclusion that I am not quite in agreement with because you fail to see that the entire human history is full of violence and that wealth is a function of freedom and justice. In other words without freedom and justice US wouldn't be the empire it is today.

Human history has been a continuous journey from "natural justice" - where order of might prevails - to "human justice" - which rejects darwinism and aims to protect the weak and share the fruit in order to improve our lives. The places that have most successfully shared fruit have unleashed prosperity better. The poor countries are poor for most part because of injustice inherent in those societies.

So while fully agreeing with every fact you mention (and I would add vietnam, drugging of blacks and irish in LA and boston, destroying latin america and many many things) ... and despite all of this I think US is a more just country compared to almost every other country in the world.

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I agree that the list of American misadventures and malicious actions is long and multi-faceted. It is true that history is full of violence and we certainly have less of it now than at any point in time in history. What I disagree with is the lore that America is/was the leader in spreading democracy, justice or peace. The deliberate propping up of dictators and autocrats throughout the world, the sabotaging of democratic governments in other parts of the world, the refusal to join the International Criminal Court, the preaching of human rights to others while carrying on with Guantanamo bay specifically designed to deny such rights, the frequent pardoning of the few Americans ever punished under American law for war crimes all militate against the supposed adherence to justice and freedoms. An objective analysis of history would argue against such self-serving assertion by Americans. If the argument is that they are no worse than everyone else, I would readily agree.

What made for one or more countries to prosper and dominate the world at one point of time or another is a complex analysis even though it may be expeditious for those countries to attribute it to some noble characteristics they assert they have (more than everyone else). The slave labor in the plantations is said to be the driver of American prosperity by some historians. The availability of vast unexploited natural resources is another. That is not deny the contribution of the industrial revolution. Often, success is about being in the right place at the right time. India and China dominated the world productivity until a couple of centuries ago. https://www.newgeography.com/content...-two-countries The jury is still out on weather freedom and justice are the only recipe for prosperity. A case study of Singapore and growing prosperity in China would probably throw up interesting results to the contrary.

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Originally Posted by Positive

How is this relevant. I have tried but don't see any logic in this question.

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Judging the past actions (4-5 centuries old) using the prism of information available now, is a futile exercise.

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Originally Posted by Positive

I agree that the list of American misadventures and malicious actions is long and multi-faceted. It is true that history is full of violence and we certainly have less of it now than at any point in time in history. What I disagree with is the lore that America is/was the leader in spreading democracy, justice or peace. The deliberate propping up of dictators and autocrats throughout the world, the sabotaging of democratic governments in other parts of the world, the refusal to join the International Criminal Court, the preaching of human rights to others while carrying on with Guantanamo bay specifically designed to deny such rights, the frequent pardoning of the few Americans ever punished under American law for war crimes all militate against the supposed adherence to justice and freedoms. An objective analysis of history would argue against such self-serving assertion by Americans. If the argument is that they are no worse than everyone else, I would readily agree.

What made for one or more countries to prosper and dominate the world at one point of time or another is a complex analysis even though it may be expeditious for those countries to attribute it to some noble characteristics they assert they have (more than everyone else). The slave labor in the plantations is said to be the driver of American prosperity by some historians. The availability of vast unexploited natural resources is another. That is not deny the contribution of the industrial revolution. Often, success is about being in the right place at the right time. India and China dominated the world productivity until a couple of centuries ago. https://www.newgeography.com/content...-two-countries The jury is still out on weather freedom and justice are the only recipe for prosperity. A case study of Singapore and growing prosperity in China would probably throw up interesting results to the contrary.

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I wish I could tell you how much alike your thinking is to what used to be my thinking 15 years back. But as I got into corporate America, did some decent job, observed politics and reflected and compared with India's political and social scene I have come to the conclusion that it is freedom and justice alone that is the fountainhead of human success. Nothing else.

Russia has even more and bigger natural resources, they too are just as intelligent and innovative bunch of people on this earth and yet Russia is no match with United States because they lack freedom and justice. In other words, freedom and justice are primary determinants of wealth whereas natural resources, capital markets and innovation are secondary.

Here are some reasons in my personal opinion why the US is the dominant country in the world in no specific order and why I am also here. Some of these may be interdependent or one came about because another one existed etc.:

1. Only two border countries, none of which are military aggressors, and natural barrier of massive oceans around.
2. Dollar is the reserve currency and all oil trade is done in $. The US can print as much money as they want without losing value unlike other countries. For example, the Fed balance sheet around April 2020 was ~ $6 trillion.
3. Everyone wants to come here and they get the pick of the best brains in the world and English is the primary language.
4. Massive arable land and mineral rich natural resources and majorly habitable with large cities with huge economies spread all over the country.
5. Stable government and democracy with no coups, no governments falling overnight, no devaluation of currency overnight (I know it's a bit laughable considering what's going on now but it's all just political theater and a new government comes in and stays in power every 4 years).
6. Large number of world renown eminent universities conducting cutting edge research in hundreds of different academic areas and pushing massive advances in technology.
7. Absurdly large military armed to the teeth with conventional and nuclear weapons which can destroy any country or the world many times over if needed. Total domination on land, sea, air and space.
8. Home to some of the largest corporations who control every aspect of global life (Energy, Hardware and Software technology, Social Media, Military Industrial Complex, Communications, Music/TV/Movies).
9. Other than some obvious locations with high air pollution, 100s of millions of acres of natural land, mountains, forests, rivers and coastal areas.
10. Massive purchasing power of consumers and subsequent advantage while framing global trade agreements.

People will anecdotally say, "Oh China will take over the US". The US is about 3 times as wealthy as China and about 5 times more militarily powerful. It's not happening for a long time.