Greatest Threats

[Havoc13]

ShadowSpear Friends-

One of my coworkers and I were discussing what constitutes the "greatest threats" to the US.

If you links to any articles that outline "greatest threats," I'd like to read them.

If you have any thoughts personally on what those threats are, I'd like to hear them.

Interpret "threat" however you want to.

Some of mine:

-cyber
-climate change
-narco terrorism
-the budget

 

[Blizzard]

Off the top of my head, threats to US, in no particular order:

• Education - both internally (within our borders) and externally (outside our borders); lack of education allows extremism to thrive. Lack of critical thought is a killer
• Entitlement - our society has become too dependent upon others to provide for us, we've come to view opportunities and priviliges as rights with little to no critical thought as to the impact. Simply put, as a society we're lazy (and not only in the physical sense). We need a spirit of self reliance.
• Production - we're not the producers we once were. Instead we're becoming a service driven nation. We need to regain/foster that entrepreneurial spirit again and become a nation of producers/manufacturers. Success is something to be proud of and celebrated.
• Cyber - current and future wars are being waged here right now; with greater dependency on technology comes greater risk, even from the smallest of threats (ie Snowden, Assange, etc.). At the same time it impacts the ability of private business to innovate. Information and innovation is shared more quickly. As a result, the lifecycle of technical advantages are shortened
• Financial - we won the Cold War by forcing the Soviets to keep up; it ruined them financially. We headed down a path of ruin in competing with ourselves in some Utopian attempt to provide all things to all people (see entitlements). We have no financial foresight or strategy.
• Complacency/Apathy - we're content saying we're the best, despite any evidence to the contrary. Individuals are more interested in self gain/satisfaction than they are of the wellbeing of those around them. This scales up on a macro level. We've been fighting a war for 10+ years....think about that. Now think about the sacrifices society made in WWII. Those sacrifices resulted in an "all in" commitment from our entire society (war bonds, factories, etc.). Could an effort/sacrifice of that magnitude ever occur in today's society? Now, efforts can't even garner a comment in the daily news.

Looking at the list, we're our own greatest threat.

 

[AWP]

We are. You can break it down into categories, sections, arguments...but at the end of the day most empires fall because of internal weakness.

Pogo nailed it...and a subtle nod to car for that reference. Blue Skies.

 

[JBS]

Per Secretary Hagel, the greatest large scale threat is now the threat of a massive cyber attack.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=120178


Personally I think it's total financial insolvency due to a collapse of the value of the US dollar thanks to hyperinflation. There are signs this could be 5 years out or less. China, India, Japan, and Russia are all buying huge quantities of gold- thousands of metric tons- which some say is part of a global effort to prepare to go off the US dollar as the global reserve currency. In recent years, there have even been instances where traveling Japanese businessmen have been caught traveling with - not MILLIONS, but- BILLIONS of US Dollars on their way to cash in the financial instruments in Switzerland.

Businessman with $134 Billion Detained
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a62_boqkurbI

 

[Red-Dot]

Off the top of my head, threats to US, in no particular order:

• Education - both internally (within our borders) and externally (outside our borders); lack of education allows extremism to thrive. Lack of critical thought is a killer
• Entitlement - our society has become too dependent upon others to provide for us, we've come to view opportunities and priviliges as rights with little to no critical thought as to the impact. Simply put, as a society we're lazy (and not only in the physical sense). We need a spirit of self reliance.
• Production - we're not the producers we once were. Instead we're becoming a service driven nation. We need to regain/foster that entrepreneurial spirit again and become a nation of producers/manufacturers. Success is something to be proud of and celebrated.
• Cyber - current and future wars are being waged here right now; with greater dependency on technology comes greater risk, even from the smallest of threats (ie Snowden, Assange, etc.). At the same time it impacts the ability of private business to innovate. Information and innovation is shared more quickly. As a result, the lifecycle of technical advantages are shortened
• Financial - we won the Cold War by forcing the Soviets to keep up; it ruined them financially. We headed down a path of ruin in competing with ourselves in some Utopian attempt to provide all things to all people (see entitlements). We have no financial foresight or strategy.
• Complacency/Apathy - we're content saying we're the best, despite any evidence to the contrary. Individuals are more interested in self gain/satisfaction than they are of the wellbeing of those around them. This scales up on a macro level. We've been fighting a war for 10+ years....think about that. Now think about the sacrifices society made in WWII. Those sacrifices resulted in an "all in" commitment from our entire society (war bonds, factories, etc.). Could an effort/sacrifice of that magnitude ever occur in today's society? Now, efforts can't even garner a comment in the daily news.

Looking at the list, we're our own greatest threat.

Agree 100%...and will add one more. Degradation of American Society- We have gotten to the point where anything goes... The moral backbone of America has all but disappeared. Compare it if you want to the Roman Empire a civilization who had a strong morality in its formative years which quickly regressed to barbarism and debauchary. Not soon after which, Rome fell apart.

 

[DA SWO]

ShadowSpear Friends-

One of my coworkers and I were discussing what constitutes the "greatest threats" to the US.

If you links to any articles that outline "greatest threats," I'd like to read them.

If you have any thoughts personally on what those threats are, I'd like to hear them.

Interpret "threat" however you want to.

Some of mine:

-cyber
-climate change
-narco terrorism
-the budget

Cyber, shut a power grid down in the NE during winter and DC would fold like an accordion.

 

[Kraut783]

"Looking at the list, we're our own greatest threat."

Spot on.....we will over react to almost every situation....politically....public emotionally....we will never be strong enough to be able to "remain calm and carry on"

We are becoming the new Rome....or have already become it.

 

[MOTOMETO]

Solar storms are a potential threat. The Atlantic Coast in particular would be severely affected.

http://www.lloyds.com/news-and-insi.../us-east-coast-at-high-risk-from-solar-storms

Damage to a small number of transformers in the densely populated US Atlantic coast is particularly concerning, according to the report. Physical and technological risk factors along the East Coast - such as magnetic latitude, distance to the coast and ground conductivity– make it a high risk for power outages, although the Midwest and the Gulf Coast states are also at risk, it says.


A large solar storm in 1989 triggered the collapse of Quebec’s electrical power grid– leaving six million Canadians without power for nine hours – while a smaller storm in 2003 caused blackouts in Sweden as well as damage to transformers in South Africa (transformers at that latitude were previously thought to be immune from such damage).

However, much bigger and potentially more disruptive events are possible. The Carrington Event of 1859 is widely regarded as the most extreme space weather event on record. It is thought that such an event today would affect between 20-40 million people in the US with power cuts lasting from several weeks to 1-2 years. The economic costs would be catastrophic – estimated at between $0.6 and $2.6trn.

 

[goon175]

Laziness. I think this kind of ties into entitlement, but just general laziness - expecting something for nothing. I honestly think America could be attacked by an actual Army (not terrorists) on our own shoreline and the people that even left their house would be minimal. Worried? Sure. Worried enough to do something like on the scale of WW2 (damn near every man, woman and child contributing) probably wouldn't happen. That's an extreme case of course, but the laziness of so many people carries over into many other areas that effect us on a daily basis.

 

[TLDR20]

Education. Our schools are terrible.

 

[0699]

#3 - Monkeys
#2 - Clowns
#1 - Monkeys dressed like clowns

 

[RetPara]

Seriously.....

Y3K

 

[x SF med]

Our greatest threat is apathy disguised as compassion... the takeover of this society by socialist idealism hiding tyranny and despotism - wrapped in a blanket of 'it's for the best for the most, look at all the horrors in the world" to disguise even further treachery by those megalomaniacal power brokers that will not be happy until the idea of the US Constitutional Republic is smashed and hidden in socio-fascist doctrine and the freedoms are removed from all people.

...the second greatest threat is the above, but change it to Islamo-fascist medieval tyrants.

the third - the society of entitlement...

(wow, I sound a bit to the right of Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun... I need to stop reading James Wesley Rawles books...)

 

[Scotth]

Education. Our schools are terrible.

The other countries spanking our bottoms in educational performance send their kids to school year round and we give kids 3 months off each year and we wonder why they're ahead of us in performance.

Pessimism. The whole country needs a big icky cocktail (or maybe a joint if you live in Colorado) and to get laid.

The sky isn't falling any more today under Obama then it was when Bush was in office. The country moves slower then we want it to but things tend to work out in the end.

 

[Brill]

Seriously.....

Y3K

Holy crap! Just imagine all those lines of computer code that needs to be fixed!

 

[reed11b]

The other countries spanking our bottoms in educational performance send their kids to school year round and we give kids 3 months off each year and we wonder why they're ahead of us in performance.

Pessimism. The whole country needs a big icky cocktail (or maybe a joint if you live in Colorado) and to get laid.

The sky isn't falling any more today under Obama then it was when Bush was in office. The country moves slower then we want it to but things tend to work out in the end.

Hours in school is not the only answer. Finland (Ranked #1) starts kids in school much later then we do and have frequent recesses throughout the day. It's not a straight equation of more = better. But I do agree that education needs some major reform, and that a 3 month summer break is not required.
Reed

 

[DA SWO]

The other countries spanking our bottoms in educational performance send their kids to school year round and we give kids 3 months off each year and we wonder why they're ahead of us in performance.

Pessimism. The whole country needs a big icky cocktail (or maybe a joint if you live in Colorado) and to get laid.

The sky isn't falling any more today under Obama then it was when Bush was in office. The country moves slower then we want it to but things tend to work out in the end.

We need to get rid of fat lazy teachers.
We need to tell parents to fuck off when little Johnny/Jane get into trouble.
11 months of school works for me (need some time for maintenance).

 

[goon175]

I don't think we should put ourselves in the box of "more quantity means more quality". For instance, that line of thought was used for school funding. We now spend more than almost every other nation on education - yet our world ranking has fallen. I think getting rid of tenure for teachers is a great start, and instead of buying iPads for every student they should think about increasing teachers' pay so as to attract more talent to the profession.

 

[JBS]

...they should think about increasing teachers' pay so as to attract more talent to the profession.

THIS X10


Every free enterprise on earth has already figured out that if you want the best, brightest, and most talented people, you need to pay them!

Want to fix education? To me it's staggeringly simple. Triple the pay (AT LEAST) and then keep top performers. No apologies, no excuses, nothing. Good money and consequences for failure. End of story.

You will have top students on earth in 5 - 10 years even with no iPads.

 

[Salt USMC]

It'd be awesome to just up teacher's salaries, but that's a HUGE expense. So here's a thought piece: I looked up some numbers from the BLS, and apparently there are about 3.3 million primary and secondary school teachers in the US (with a little over 400k private school teachers, but they are not factored into that number).

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Education-Tr...ndergarten-and-elementary-school-teachers.htm - Primary school
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/middle-school-teachers.htm - Middle school (note that they include sixth grade teachers in these numbers - there may be some overlap with primary school numbers)
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes252031.htm High school
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=28 Total numbers including demographics

I did not see any data in these for average salaries for primary and middle school teachers (they list the median salaries for some reason), but the mean salary for high school teachers came out to 57k a year. According to that 4th link, the average salary across all public schools was fairly close - about 56k a year. Tripling that would come out to 168k/year. So, assuming we have approximately 3.3 million public school teachers, paying triple the average wage would increase the ED budget to approximately $554.4 billion per year. That's a lot of money!

So where are we going to get it?

Well, for FY14 there's about $1 trillion in discretionary spending (http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/Discretionary.htm -note that this is current as of today). So you can pick and choose from there.