Analysis Paper 2- The Fall of America Inc.

The article, The Fall of America, Inc. was written by Francis Fukuyama and published on October 13, 2008. Fukuyama gave his opinion mainly on the current state of the U.S. economy. In his opinion, the economy is in bad shape by relating to the history of the U.S. and how the next U.S. president will handle the situation for the future of the country. Therefore, Fukuyama wrote this piece as an opinion on bad decisions for the U.S. economy.
In his article, he refers to U.S. history on how the economy was in bad shape during the Reagan administration. He describes how Reagan was trying to create a capitalism that would bring about low taxes, light regulation, and a government that would be in charge of the economic growth of the U.S. However, Fukuyama states that Reagan’s plan backfired which created deregulation that had a huge affect not only on the U.S., but the world. Fukuyama also uses the term “Reaganism” that describes how governments can expand their authority. Also, this term was used to describe how Reagan tried to make tax cuts so that the government and wealthy people would be receiving the money while everyone else struggles to maintain a balanced budget.
Fukuyama also describes how President Bush messed up the economy by stating that between 2002 and 2007, the countries Europe and Latin America viewed the U.S. economy as a, “cowboy capitalism.” In other words, Fukuyama is blaming President Bush for creating havoc in the Middle East by invading Iraq and raising the prices of oil and gasoline so that he could use American dollars to fund his war. Therefore, Fukuyama is stating that the Bush administration put the U.S. economy far more in debt with the funding of the war in Iraq. Money was printed and sent to the Middle East instead of being used to stabilize and support the US economy.
Fukuyama then starts talking about the future of the U.S. economy with the upcoming presidential election between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. He states that Obama wants to make better political relations with the countries of Russia and China by way of diplomacy. Obama believes that if the U.S. pulls its troops out of Iraq and focuses on bringing the gasoline and oil prices down, then the economy will recover from severe debts, but not all at once.
However, Fukuyama states that McCain is like Teddy Roosevelt because the last few debates, McCain has been saying that if the U.S. leaves Iraq, it will be a failure. Fukuyama also stated that McCain has been calling out against the Wall Street and SEC chairman, Chris Cox because Wall Street received a 700 billion dollar bailout to avoid a bankruptcy and possibly another depression. Therefore, Fukuyama is criticizing both candidates because Obama’s policy is not considered an ideological process and McCain’s policy is not considered intelligent, but trigger happy.
Finally, Fukuyama states that in order for the U.S. economy to change, the country must live under a democracy. Fukuyama believes that a republic is a bad way of governing a country because President Bush wasted billions of U.S. dollars on Iraq and has done nothing to help the economy. In other words, Fukuyama illustrates that Bush did nothing to help his own people, but he certainly had time to spend a lot of money for his war in the Middle East. Also, Fukuyama related how the Bush administration is similar to the Nixon and Reagan administrations by explaining how each president handled the economy by trying to cut taxes which took a lot of jobs away from the citizens living in the U.S. In return, foreign countries, such Russia and China are noticing that Bush is really destroying not only the U.S. economy, but the world economy as well because almost every country relies on the U.S. dollar.
In this writer’s opinion, Fukuyama is one hundred percent accurate about the U.S. economy being in very bad shape. One reason why this writer thinks that Fukuyama is right about the U.S. economy being in bad shape is that he read in the article about the 700 billion dollar tab to help Wall Street avoid a stock market crash. In other words, this writer thinks that Fukuyama did a good job explaining how the 700 billion dollars can put the U.S. in greater debt, but also make it a challenge for the person who becomes president.
Second, this writer thinks that Fukuyama did a good job comparing both the Nixon and Bush administrations based on foreign policy because Fukuyama illustrates how both Republicans were focusing on handling both the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq. Basically, both men were more focused on how to spend money for Iraq and Vietnam, but also how many troops should be deployed to war. Therefore, Fukuyama has a very strong point about both presidents ruining the U.S. with their foreign policy overshadowing the economy.
Finally, this writer thinks that Fukuyama is right about the Republicans ruining the U.S. economy whenever a Republican is President of the United States. He explains how Reagan, Nixon, and Bush ruined the economy by asking for billions of dollars to help each of their egocentric foreign policies. In other words, each president did not care about the economy because each of them erroneously thought that the U.S. economy was in great shape.
Based off this third reason, Fukuyama thinks that living under a republic is worse than living under a democracy. For example, Fukuyama illustrates that President Bush uses the term democracy as a military action against countries that are ruled under tyranny. Basically, President Bush uses democracy as an excuse just to start a war in the Middle East. Therefore, these three reasons illustrate why this writer thinks that Fukuyama is one hundred percent accurate about the U.S. economy being in bad shape.
After reading and analyzing this article, Fukuyama clearly states that the U.S. economy is in terrible shape due to previous U.S. history and the current administration funding the War in Iraq. Therefore, the next U.S. president must focus on rebuilding the economy to help every American live in a country of peace and prosperity.