Oh Gary, you are so silly sometimes- of course it does- if, as you have said, your day and income is concerned with futures trading, that entire market could not exist unless the US government provided a secure financial and political environment so that people felt confident there even would be a future, much less a market in intangible things like stocks, commodities, and derivatives.
Every day, the entire world gives its opinion on the likelihood of the US staying afloat- to the tune of several trillion dollars in trades in currency, stocks, bonds, and futures.
You dont see any of that being done in Congolese francs or Uruguay pesos, do you? Of course not.
For all your doom and gloom, you, and everybody else in the world, is perfectly willing to bet all on the fact that the USA will protect its citizens. If you really didnt believe that, your "From" tag would read something like "Switzerland".
As far as the US being on top-
Who says it should be?
Change is the nature of the universe.
As many of our foreign posters have observed over the years, we have what it takes- resources, education, money- and if we dont stay on top, to me thats a sign that we dont deserve to be, that we arent hungry enough.
When I see what the average rich guy does with his money- buy gewgaws and gimcracks, yachts and big screen tvs- as opposed to what the average rich guy in India or China does- buy american aluminum and drivetrain companies- it doesnt make me think we have any inherent right to be on top.
As far as blaming it all on "kids today", I would like to quote this, which I read in The US Machine Tool Industry From 1900-1950, by Harless Wagoner-
This is referring to the time period of 1890 to 1910
"Apprentices were often refered to as lazy, idle, stupid, careless, vicious or any one of a dozen other undesirable things, although there was no evidence that this was more often the case than in the past. Various explanations were advanced during the early years of the 20th century as to why few boys, or too few of those considered the more desirable type, were interested in becoming machinists. Among these were (1) lack of social status of machinists, (2) poor working conditions, (3) poor quality of apprentice training in many shops (4)lack of opportunity for advancement (5) the desire of many boys starting work to make as much money as possible within a short time.
Early in 1908, Fred Geier, President of Cinncinnati Milling Machine, reported that his firm had thirty eight machinist apprentices, and that these boys were very weak in elementary arithmetic and were unable to read drawings. "
The point being, of course, that the more things change, the more they stay the same, and grumpy old farts like us have been complaining about ignorant young whippersnappers for approximately the last 8000 years. And still, things get invented, the world goes on, and those dumb kids grow up and complain about their kids.
