DOES THIS SCARE YOU?

Just about everything we buy today appears to be made in another country? Just go to Wal-Mart and see if you can buy anything made in the United States, except perhaps food products. Even our military buys food and armor from a foreign country. Foreign companies have a share in running our oil refineries, power plants, factories, and even water treatment facilities. We now know that foreign companies are involved in running some of our ports. Many of us drive automobiles made overseas. Almost all of our clothing, TV’s and other electronic gadgets are made in other countries.
Fewer and fewer products are made in the U.S. Many of our factories have closed. The result of all of this is a huge trade deficit. We buy more than we can afford. Last year, alone, the deficit was $805 billion dollars. At the end of 2004 our government owed well over $2 trillion to foreign countries and foreign investors. I can’t even imagine what a trillion really is. Now, in 2006, our government owes so much more.
A family cannot continue indefinitely to spend more than it earns. Can a government? What will happen to our country if our government keeps on borrowing from foreign investors and governments? Since we no longer produce enough products to sell in exchange for what we buy, our creditors will buy up more and more of our country with the dollars they have accumulated. This scares me.
I have always considered the United States to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest country in the world. Will this continue to be true? In my younger days I was a student of history. I remember the Roman Empire as the greatest country in the then known world. But, after many years, it began to fall apart. No country is immune to such a fate. If China, Japan, and the rich Arab countries continue to buy pieces of the United States what will be the outcome? I am scared but I hope I am wrong to feel this way.