No yabby.

The US military-industrial complex, a propensity to manufacture tools, heavy machinery and aeroplanes and the development within it's electronic's industries will ensure the US won't go the way of nations manufacturing exclusively consumer goods with an inability to feed themselves.

Cannot you grasp the real strength of the US?

Keith, I think you fail to notice the changes going on in the world,
over time. When I was a kid, the Japanese made largely what was called
"Japanese Junk". Today you can walk into any factory and see highly
sophisticated machine-tools, robots etc, made in Japan. Japan is
playing a huge role in equipping Chinese factories now.

My first car in the 70s was a Toyota. I drove it around Europe and
it received funny looks from people as there were few on the roads.
Today Toyota is the world's most successfull mv company, if not
the largest and Detroit is on its knees, nearly bankrupt and reliant
on Govt handouts to survive.

China, just 20 years was nowhere. Today they have sent the first
mission into space, their steel industry is the largest in the world.
Yesterday a 600m$ Airbus assembly plant was opened in China.

The Korean shipbuilding industry, as just one example, of a dynamic
industy well beyond your "consumer goods" claim. The list goes on.

Yes, America is very good at making weapons, for nobody throws more
money at their military then the Americans. Yet they are unable
to even catch Bin Laden, despite all their weapons. They have
fought the Iraq war largely on money borrowed from China. If China
pulled in its loans and stopped lending, the American financial
system would largely collapse.

Yes American agriculture is large, propped up by billions of $ each
year of subsidies. Its relied on cheap oil to be what it is, but
the world is changing, now the Arabs have them by the proverbial
testicles.

If you can't see that America is going down the tube, right in front
of your eyes, then you are clearly blind.

America's strength is its ability to innovate, thus we have Silicon
Valley etc. If that is going to be enough to save America, we have
yet to see. At the moment it certainly is not paying America's bills.

If the Americans keep electing dummies like Bush and Cheney
as political leaders, then things will only get worse for them.