The days of the United States being the world's preeminent superpower are unequivocally over.  Perhaps the most disconcerting and disappointing reality is that the corrosive elements that have led to our country's downfall have largely been from self-inflicted wounds.

An interesting historical document is The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.  I've read it twice and was left with the same two impressions both times.  First, upon completing the reading of it, there awaits endless hours of fascinating thought and discourse.  Second, the actual document itself is horrifyingly boring to read.

Nevertheless, there is one part of the Communist Manifesto that rings true with regard to American culture.  That one part is the notion that whomever controls the base of production within a nation assumes the true authoritative and governing power of that nation.  Marx and Engels cautioned that in a Capitalistic system comprised of free markets, the private sector controls the base of production and that after a period of difficult times those private institutions would strive to ensure their own survival and the actions taken to do so would run counter to the best interests of society and populations; i.e. the wishes of government.

For well over a century there seemed to be minimal conflict between the private sector and the public sector.  The technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution allowed the United States to manufacture its endless supplies of raw materials into finished goods where previously it was forced to merely ship these raw materials to Europe for manufacture.  American industry sprang up and our products and inventions were the envy of the entire civilized world.  The two World Wars further augmented the American gains of the late 19th century simply because war time fueled production when Europe twice was forced to rebuild itself after complete annihilation.

Things are changing though.  As time has gone on, other countries have caught up to the U.S. in terms of technological advancement.  To make matters worse, the U.S. developed a horrendous addiction to oil in an effort to feed its invention of the automobile.  Unfortunately, oil is the one valuable natural resource of which our own supply fails to meet demand.  The middle eastern nations of OPEC have utilized their advantage through various price gouges.  American oil companies, in turn, have offset their profit inequities by passing along that gouge to the American consumer.

Now, in the face of rising wages and production costs, a vast multitude of other American companies have decided to outsource domestic jobs in an effort to make the most of cheaper work forces in other countries.  To date, hundreds of thousands of American jobs are gone with the wind and millions more are soon to follow.  Of course, it also hurts that private sector men with private sector ideals have slowly been making their way into government to ensure that the best interests of business find receptive ears (and votes) in congress.

The current economic crisis has shown for the first time the battle lines that are being drawn between the private sector and the public sector.  Battle lines that Marx and  Engels so accurately predicted in 1848 when the U.S. was nothing more than a vacant land with a couple big cities.

The trillion dollar bailout of the financial system shows definitively that the government is at the mercy of the private sector; a private sector who is content to ensure its own survival by sending its jobs overseas and relegating its manufacturing power to foreign lands.  China's burgeoning economy and manufacturing infrastructure already dwarfs our own ability to make things. 

The downfall of the U.S. is inevitable because not only does the government have no ability to stop this process, but very soon the United States won't have any production capacity whatsoever.  When once the rest of the world relied on importing American goods and materials, America will soon be forced to import the goods and materials of China.

Obama won't be able to stop this process.  Nobody will.