America is not in a vacuum.

It is important to Ed's book that the discussions are primarily aimed at America.if for no other reason than most of us really don't understand (or care much about) the world outside the good old U S of A.

In a very serious crisis, all we will have in the short term is what we have at hand. In recovery, America will have to rely firstly on internal resources.

But as we strive towards complete recovery, we will return to a world of international business.

Will America reemerge like after WWII as the great exporter of goods (from compliant factories) or will out massive national debt be "called" and drive us into international poverty?

Will the world "blame" the USA for the problem or will they "praise" us for the solution?

The recovery of any sector will depend on the balance of operations both national and international.

-- Thom Gilligan (thomgill@eznet.net), August 14, 1999

Answers

I think that y2k might help to dissolve some of the barriers to international understanding, most of which have been erected by our political leaders to keep something like the Cold War going. Don't get me wrong: I love the USA; we come here once or twice a year on vacation, but the thing that strikes us every time we turn on American TV or read the newspapers is how insular the country is. Thom is right that American people don't know or care about other countries: there seems to be very little foreign news, or interest in world events. But America can't have it both ways: it can't on the one hand claim to be the leader of the free world, and on the other turn its back on the rest of the planet. y2k will be a global problem, and in some countries it is going to be very bad. The USA and its friends abroad (including UK) can work together in the aftermath to build worthwhile solutions to global problems. And instead of using all this vast technical expertise to build and preserve military capabilities to exercise global power by violence, perhaps the lessons of y2k will teach us how to harness that same expertise in a spirit of global reconstruction and co-operation.

-- Gillian Gunner (ggunner@cix.co.uk), August 15, 1999.