What are the Venezuuelians smoking?!

[CrAz3D]

Word, everybody is proChina growth cause that just means we're gonna grow more too

Anyways, stop talking about China, this is about Venezuela being a totally ignorant ass of a country.  Stick to that

[Tuberload]

Addition: This post is in response to the American vs. Chinese route that the thread has taken, and I apologies if anyone is pissed off because I have strayed from the initial topic as well.

---

Our middle class is leaving, and being taken over largely by the Chinese causing there economical growth. In the end the US will still contain a large amount of the excessively rich and the rest of us will just have to get more familiar with being poor.

To say that "Americans are getting fat and the Chinese are small quick and strong so they will win a war" sounds stupid. Our combat designated branches of military are far from fat and lazy, and are some of the most fit and trained troops in the world. Our branches such as the navy and air force may not be as fit but they have technological and fund advantages over everyone else's. Most wars with the US contain a kill ratio of, for example, 10:1. We loose wars now because they are not conventional and over time our presidents loose public support. A war with China would be much different than the wars we have fought within the last 50 or so years, they would be more conventional, and the kill ratios would probably still be about the same. I look at it this way, if the US is to contain a large percentage of all of the richest of the rich plus a vast amount of poor, our military power will not change much, and could possibly grow. Once the middle class economical shift does change, poverty will more than likely cause the growing fat trend to drop because we will no longer be able to live so comfortable. We will have a few guys with all of the money funding an even larger group of poor people that will be willing to go to war because they have no other choice to a decent life. The poor almost completely fuel our military now, and is only dampered because there is other options to a decent life for those of us that are given easier roads.

The US will more than likely have conquered outer space by then giving the US an even larger advantage.

The US will more than likely never go to war with China one on one while the rest of the world just sits back and watches. We will break off into allegiances and it will become WWIII. In my opinion this could be the start of a unilateral government, but that is a whole other topic.

In the end I think it just comes down to the US's tiny percentage of its population running international businesses and the balance of middle class shifting. The average American will start to suffer more, while the Chinese and such will start living better lives shifting the "Americans are getting fat and lazy" argument as well. I think things are a little more complicated then the US just falling off the face of the earth and the Chinese taking over. For all we know this economical shift is desired by the richest of the rich, but this is also another topic.

[Topaz]

I recall reading in a war documentary that, for every 37,000 rounds expended by the US military, there was one enemy casualty.

Doesn't sound like good odds :-/

[CrAz3D]

Maybe you should find that article...how many people were hit by some of those 37k bullets?

[Tuberload]

Yes, but those large amount of rounds are part of the reason our kill ratios are so different. It's called cover/supressing fire, and it is a very combat tactic. A bullet that costs a few pennies is worth someones life.

[Topaz]

It was a cold war documentary, but I'm not sure where I read it.

Edit: I think it was some 3,700 rounds.

The ratio for snipers were infinitely better, though - 5 kills for every 4 shots fired O_O

And, back to topic:

China will take a long time to completely develop, simply because our workforce's salaries are dirt compared to Americans. An average assembly-line worker's pay numbers about 37 cents an hour. That, in itself, will take a long time for the Chinese to (truly) gain respect and global superpower status.

[CrAz3D]

They may not have respect for their human rights but it has gotten better over there.  & yes, I'm sure they will be recognized as a power

[Lenny]

They are recognized as a power, as I said earlier, economists project China to replace the US as the world's strongest economic power in the next 2 decades.

And their workforce salary is exactly what is causing its rapid growth.  US markets can't compete with the cheap labor and cheap goods imported from China.  The cost of living in America is far too high to support it.  As you can see, this problem has expanded from 'factory' labor to higher end jobs (aka offshoring).  The US is finally feeling the affects of its massive trade deficit.  IIRC, Europe has been continuing to pressure the US to continue importing from China for fear that China will turn to dump its goods in Europe.

[Topaz]

I doubt they'll become a superpower in the next two decades, a lot of things can shift power in twenty years. That's also if the other countries sit idly by and do nothing while their trade gets sucked up by the Chinese.

[Lenny]

As far as superpower status goes, China already has that.  But as far as the strongest superpower, the US is still in that position.  And other countries are sitting idly by while this is occuring mainly because it's only the US's problem.  As I said, Europe is still pressuring the US to take in Chinese goods. 

[CrAz3D]

"As you can see, this problem has expanded from 'factory' labor to higher end jobs (aka offshoring)."
The outsourcing of programming jobs & the like is fine, it is supposed to help eliminate low end jobs from America...if we dump our crap jobs on places like China & India then we are free to have many "information age" jobs. 

But still, this isn't explaing WTF the Venezuelians are smoking.  They have very little world influence...the only thing that matters is their oil & I didn't think they had terribly much of it.