not that i'd want (or quietly allow ) this to happen, but a while back i started thinking about how things are coming together, or not, as the case may be, and a very strange vision of a possible future america emerged.
as it now stands;
1) we don't really
make much of anything anymore. and too much of what
is still manufactured in the usa is foreign owned.
2) even much of our food is brought in from mexico and other countries.
3) anyone who has been to the hospital and many doctor's offices lately will see that there are more and more doctors, nurses and technicians from abroad. many have had no med school in the usa.
4) have you talked to a "customer service rep" on the phone lately? it's more than a little disconcerting when you call earthlink and others to reconcile a problem only to find that "kevin" speaks with a distinct bombay accent and you need to repeat yourself because he can't understand "your english". my buddy's a doctor. a year or so ago, the hospital where he practices made the decision to outsource dictation and records to a firm in india. now he must spend even more time proofing the returned notes, and tells me that there are not only problems with spelling and grammar, but that whole sentences are changed, which effects the entire meaning of the documentation. "death by translation"???
5) as some have noted, we are so over extended that our national debt (including the $$ borrowed to pay for those big tax cuts) is being floated by foreign nations in a way never seen before. it's amazing to me that while our leaders condemn, rightfully, the human rights record of communist china, they have also allowed the same to buy up a lion's share of our debt.
let that sink in for a sec. one of our most adversarial competitors in geo-politics, energy requirements and a country that has fostered a mind numbing trade deficit with our nation holds the paper on our national debt. guess we better not piss them off anytime soon, eh?
6) our country, regrettably, really does at this point rely on the cheap immigrant labor for a lot of the hard work. both liberals and conservatives, for different reasons, have done nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigration. both have floated the "they do the jobs that americans won't do" talk. any american who has ever been dead broke but has gotten used to eating occasionally and living indoors can tell you that given the choice of sleeping in a cardboard box in an alley
or cleaning the men's room at the red lobster is not really a brain buster.
having done a ton of crappy jobs as a young, struggling musician far from home, i can personally tell you that next to starving and homelessness, a little humiliation is not life threatening and is, in my estimation, kind of good for the soul. frankly, not every one has the desire, or the brain power, to be a stock trader, ceo or similar "professional". but we are increasingly being told, if even in a subliminal way, that really, getting your hands dirty is for losers.
however, if someone from abroad is working under the radar and for less than minimum wage, no benefits and fear that complaining will bring
la migre, there are an awful lot of employers that will exploit that and then say that, "gosh, i just couldn't find an american that wanted the job". i for one, have been amazed at some of the places this has occured. airports come to mind.
that a huge amount of the money earned by illegals and other immigrants is sent, not back into the u.s. economy, but out of the country never to return only adds to the problem.
there's more we could point at, but for the purpose of simplicity, let me put it this way;
(Q) if america doesn't build anything, grow our own food, create our own energy or what have you, what would such an america have to sell ?
(A) banking and the worlds most powerful military. both underpinned by religion.
so it's possible that america would mimick the classic tribal order of things,
chieftans, priests and the warrior cast. and lots of barefoot women popping out the next generation and cleaning the ol' homestead.
rather than be self sufficient, america would offer it's military as mercenaries in exchange for money and goods. and do so with the blessings of the religious leaders who assure us that "we
are one nation under god. and he's on
our side !".
somehow, no matter how you care to "interpret" the declaration of independence or the constitution, it takes a veeeerrrryyyy long stretch to reach the conclusion that that is the america that the founding fathers intended.
but we are seeing a tendancy in that direction. we should probably knock it off pretty soon. it doesn't seem to have worked too good for the roman empire.
), but it may be that as time goes on, countries will be regarded in geographic terms, relative to planet earth, the way states and provinces are now. 
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