I.O.U.S.A. is one of the more frightening documentaries of recent memory, and what’s most chilling is that its essential messages of national fiscal responsibility derived from more sensible economic policies (at federal, state, local, and personal levels) are as unsexy as possible, like 5am crop reports or Kathy Griffin. But if America is to have any more Independence Days that mean anything, it’s the debt that matters, and debt is the biggest threat to the continued workings of the country, a point which I.O.U.S.A. makes in a straightforward and nonpartisan manner.
Those still clinging to the unfettered belief in American exceptionalism believe that the crushing debt we’re currently experiencing is part of the natural ebb and flow of commerce and capital, and that America will soon rebound back to some level of solvency, given the power of free markets and our unique status as a nation. But even a glance through finger-covered eyes at actual numbers and projections will shrivel the sac of even the biggest-balled baller, of which the U.S. has many. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other entitlements will sap the economic resources of the country in a near-exponential fashion, and our trillions of dollars in debt to foreign countries will sap our ideological resources. In other words, the reign of American exceptionalism will be over in my lifetime, if it’s not already gone.
A quick historical example is the sadly salient Suez Canal crisis in the ‘50s. When the United States threatened England with a currency dump, given that the U.S. was one of the biggest holders of U.K. currency at the time, England readjusted their ideological stance towards conflict in that region, effectively breaking the last vertebrae in the spine of the British Empire, an empire that long claimed an exceptional status of its own. Now, you don’t have to be Nostradamus to see that nations like China and Japan (holding billions of dollars in U.S. currency) have assumed the U.S. role in this part of the tale, with America clinging to an addled belief in superiority, like a kid with inflated self-esteem with nothing to back it up except for loudness and brutality. So imagine the day that Japan says “jump” (like the North Korea nuclear threat to Japan). When that day comes (not "if"), can the U.S. literally afford not to cater to the capricious whims of its creditors?
Months ago, I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a dystopian tale of a future world ravaged by a series of unknown events, where what's left of humanity is reduced to hardscrabble isolation and despair. The more I see things like I.O.U.S.A., the more I see The Road as less a fantasy and more a map to where we're going. Keep that in mind when you watch fireworks made in Taiwan, and think about what independence means to you.
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