re: Not to butt in here but.....
We were in Europe and SE Asia through much of the Cold War. How'd that turn out?
The poverty rate is pretty much flat. It's been floating between 10 and 15 percent since about 1965. It was 12.7 percent in 2004, 12.6 percent in 2005, and 12.3 percent in 2006.
It's amazing that everyone wants to address everything about the economy except the one issue that economists all agree will someday "tank" the economy. Why is that?