US compared to Rome Options

[dauss]

Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.

These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.

Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.

“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”

Mr Walker’s views carry weight because he is a non-partisan figure in charge of the Government Accountability Office, often described as the investigative arm of the US Congress.

While most of its studies are commissioned by legislators, about 10 per cent – such as the one containing his latest warnings – are initiated by the comptroller general himself.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Walker said he had mentioned some of the issues before but now wanted to “turn up the volume”. Some of them were too sensitive for others in government to “have their name associated with”.

“I’m trying to sound an alarm and issue a wake-up call,” he said. “As comptroller general I’ve got an ability to look longer-range and take on issues that others may be hesitant, and in many cases may not be in a position, to take on.

“One of the concerns is obviously we are a great country but we face major sustainability challenges that we are not taking seriously enough,” said Mr Walker, who was appointed during the Clinton administration to the post, which carries a 15-year term.

The fiscal imbalance meant the US was “on a path toward an explosion of debt”.

“With the looming retirement of baby boomers, spiralling healthcare costs, plummeting savings rates and increasing reliance on foreign lenders, we face unprecedented fiscal risks,” said Mr Walker, a former senior executive at PwC auditing firm.

Current US policy on education, energy, the environment, immigration and Iraq also was on an “unsustainable path”.

“Our very prosperity is placing greater demands on our physical infrastructure. Billions of dollars will be needed to modernise everything from highways and airports to water and sewage systems. The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a sobering wake-up call.”

Mr Walker said he would offer to brief the would-be presidential candidates next spring.

“They need to make fiscal responsibility and inter-generational equity one of their top priorities. If they do, I think we have a chance to turn this around but if they don’t, I think the risk of a serious crisis rises considerably”.

[impala454]

i dont understand either why everyone thinks our K-12 is so bad. you got kids learning algebra in 6th grade, doing calculus by their sophomore year in high school, taking physics and chemistry and biology classes that are way more advanced than anything that was even available when our parents were in school. you've got junior high kids building robots and doing all kinds of neat hands on stuff. you've got programming classes starting to come up.

i personally went to public schools in deer park, tx (SE houston area). i thought that i came out extremely well prepared for college. if i recall correctly i started algebra in the 7th grade, and ended up taking calculus my jr year, and then no math at all sr year bc i was lazy (heh). i know some kids got bussed over to the local CC for calc 2 their sr year, i sure as hell didnt wanna do that.

and i know what some will say "but zomgs the inner city schools are so terrible blah blah blah". well.. i'd be very interested to see some comparison of what they're learning there vs 20-30 years ago. i'd be willing to bet that at the worst they're still getting into geometry and trig and such by their senior year.

[blaarg]

Compared to a lot of countries our K-12 system really really under-prepares kids, especially in public schools.
I can tell this from a math perspective (since this is what I know most).

We are getting surpassed by leaps and bounds from Eastern European countries (Romania for one), Central Asian countries (India, Russia) and Eastern Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea). If you have ever seen text books from any of these regions you would understand. Here in the states we teach math as mostly repetition (here are 120323094 integration problems: DO THEM!) while there they teach methods and strategies to solve way more difficult problems. That is why when you look up American Mathematical Olympiad teams (the top students in math) the majority of them are either immigrants or 2nd generation immigrants.

As for the higher education system reason "We have students all around come here to study." One reason that you might be overlooking is because schools in the above mentioned countries are VERY difficult to get into. Take the India Institute of Technology who had 198,000 applicants in 2005 and a little over 3,000 got in (less than 2%!). Compare that to say, idk, Harvard with an acceptance rate of 10.3% for 2007 (the LOWEST of any Ivy League school). So naturally those that don't get accepted come to the US to study where admittance is a lot less competitive.

[THECHICKEN]

Compared to a lot of countries our K-12 system really really under-prepares kids, especially in public schools.
I can tell this from a math perspective (since this is what I know most).

We are getting surpassed by leaps and bounds from Eastern European countries (Romania for one), Central Asian countries (India, Russia) and Eastern Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea). If you have ever seen text books from any of these regions you would understand. Here in the states we teach math as mostly repetition (here are 120323094 integration problems: DO THEM!) while there they teach methods and strategies to solve way more difficult problems. That is why when you look up American Mathematical Olympiad teams (the top students in math) the majority of them are either immigrants or 2nd generation immigrants.

As for the higher education system reason "We have students all around come here to study." One reason that you might be overlooking is because schools in the above mentioned countries are VERY difficult to get into. Take the India Institute of Technology who had 198,000 applicants in 2005 and a little over 3,000 got in (less than 2%!). Compare that to say, idk, Harvard with an acceptance rate of 10.3% for 2007 (the LOWEST of any Ivy League school). So naturally those that don't get accepted come to the US to study where admittance is a lot less competitive.

Wait... Romania has us beat? Holy shit. If those damn gypsy ass people are beating us then that should speak for itself...