Your own quote disproves the significance of your point: The economy we have today hardly resembles pre-Depression circumstances, so the US might now be considered one of those "other countries", mainly due to the fact that it is now more dependent on the economies of other countries.

I think you're getting ahead of yourself with interpreting what others are trying to say, try taking a step back Reading Complete Paragraphs

...and I expected no one to confront... because the liabilities which it causes to all economies is undeniable.

__________________
When mankind has a question, nature usually has an answer.

Poverty USA -- Catholic Campaign for Human Development -- A hand up, not a hand out.

City, State, % People Below Poverty Level

1. Detroit, MI 32.5% City of Detroit Official Web Site -- Office of the Mayor
2. Buffalo, NY 29.9% Mayor's Office - City of Buffalo
3. Cincinnati, OH 27.8% City of Cincinnati - Office of the Mayor
4. Cleveland, OH 27.0% City of Cleveland, Mayor's Office - City of Cleveland
5. Miami, FL 26.9% City of Miami - Office of the Mayor
5. St. Louis, MO 26.8% Welcome from Mayor Francis G. Slay
7. El Paso, TX 26.4% www.elpasotexas.gov - Mayor Homepage
8. Milwaukee, WI 26.2% Office of Mayor Tom Barrett
9. Philadelphia, PA 25.1% PHILA.GOV | Welcome to the City of Philadelphia
10. Newark, NJ 24.2% City of Newark - Mayor Cory A. Booker


HERE ARE THE TOP 10 HIGHEST POVERTY RATED CITYS! NOTICE THAT THEY ALL HAVE A DEMOCRAT FOR A MAYOR! COENCIDENCE?

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/30/real...ties/index.htm
Top 10 most violent cities.
City Crime rate: violent incidents
per 100,000
St. Louis, MO 2,405.5 [url=http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/mayor/]
Detroit, MI 2,357.6 [url=http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/mayor/default.htm]
Flint, MI 2,260.2 http://www.ci.flint.mi.us/mayor/myr_welcome.asp
Camden,NJ 2,096.7 http://www.ci.camden.nj.us/
Memphis, TN 1,860.0 http://www.cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=1
Miami Gardens, FL 1,854.3 http://www.miamigardens-fl.gov/Council/Mayor.aspx
Orlando, FL 1,807.5 http://www.cityoforlando.net/elected/mayor/bio.htm
Compton, CA 1,786.9 http://www.comptoncity.org/
Springfield, MA 1,774.2 http://www.springfieldcityhall.com/COS/mayor.0.html
Little Rock, AR 1,771.8 http://www.littlerock.org/MayorsOffice/

HERE ARE THE TOP 10 HIGHEST VIOLENT RATED CITYS! NOTICE THAT THEY ALL HAVE A DEMOCRAT FOR A MAYOR! COENCIDENCE?

Poverty in the US is almost entirely self imposed.

excellantly put

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Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.obamatruth.org/

Have you noticed the huge inequality in our education system? Just to name one problem with your statement.

Your education is your responsibility as well.

If you are really determined to get an education, a bad school can't hold you back.

__________________

"Seek truth from facts"

--Deng Xiaoping

You are asking a kid to maturely and intellectually reason everything that he needs to do to become successful since, if you haven't gone to a bad school, can't seem to provide? And you blame this kid if he can't make the right decisions without decent education? Somehow we are genetically designed right from birth to know what is right and what is wrong now?

Where's the "equality of opportunity" principle?

I've taught myself most of what I know, especially knowledge about business and finances, that which one needs to know to be economically successful.

I'm 17.

To others my age, I say, "figure it out for yourself for a change." No one can truly educate you except yourself. You have to learn, you can't just sit in a classroom and expect to be taught.

__________________

"Seek truth from facts"

--Deng Xiaoping

I know this theory is subjective but have you heard of cognitive behaviorism in psychology?

Anyway, a group of psychologists tried an experiment (I'm retelling this by my memories, so it may not be exactly as the original experiment and has flaws, but you get the point).

They did a random sampling of young children age around 5-7 across America. They wanted to test how long the children will wait in order to earn a bigger reward (in another word, are they willing to delay their gratification in order for larger reward, which is the key to success - self-control).

Anyway, they divided the children into 3 groups.

The first group. Children are given a marshmallow. They can get two marshmallow if they are willing to wait for 10-15 minutes. If they can't wait, they can just ring a bell on the table and the psychologist will come and give them their marshmallow. Before the psychologist left, he told the children that he's a very trustworthy guy and always keep his promises.

The second group. The same set-up but one slight variation. Before the psychologist left, he told the children that he's very untrustworthy, and he often doesn't keep his promises

The third group is a control group

Anyway, the result is that the number of children in the first group that waited and got two marshmallow is overwhelmingly greater than the two other groups. And the group 2 got the lowest number.

The experiment proved one thing. Expectancy plays an important role determining what people do. And history shapes expectancy.

If a child lives in a good neighborhood where there is trust, safety then he'll have more trust in the system, thus willing to work hard to save and look into the future.

However, if that child experiences betrayal, mistrust and danger for many parts of his life, it is reasonable to reason that it's not logical to distrust people, it's logical to live for the moment more because the future is always uncertainty. It is why the rate of saving among people in dangerous places are significantly lower than people in safe neighborhood because they know they can die tomorrow - expectancy shapes action.


Now you claim to learn everything by yourself? Ok, how many people do you know left their child before he was born? How many people do you know are actually criminal and drug addicts? It's not just the stuff they teach you in the classroom; it's also the people, the guidance and a safe environment that a school provides that teaches you.

No one is born out of a vacuum, there is a role for environment to play here. And, it's just my opinion, a child who should deserve every of our effort to level the playing field so they can have the "equal opportunity" to succeed. He/she should not be punished because he was unlucky enough to be born in an environment where "productive behaviors" are not the norm.

That's the moral side of the argument.

Let's return to the economic side. You seem to be interested in economics. And you must know there are several factors that affect the long-term supply, holding the key to our sustained economic development. And one important factor is human capital. It is one of the most important factor that explained high economic growth.

From my case studies, huge investment in human capital such as the GI bill played a significant role in increased productivity in America. Anh also in South Korea, a country that became an industrialized country from a third world country poorer than Ghana literally overnight, did invest hugely on human capital. They did so by trying to provide the best education system to the most kids that they can.