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For the First Time In 50 Years, a Majority of Americans Think the U.S. Should “Mind Its Own Business”

George Washington's picture




 

Pew noted yesterday:

Majority Says U.S. Should ‘Mind Its Own Business Internationally’

Support for U.S. global engagement, already near a historic low, has fallen further.

 

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The [American] public thinks that the nation does too much to solve world problems, and increasing percentages want the U.S. to “mind its own business internationally” and pay more attention to problems here at home.

 

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These are among the principal findings of America’s Place in the World, a quadrennial survey of foreign policy attitudes conducted in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a nonpartisan membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy.

 

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The public’s skepticism about U.S. international engagement – evident in America’s Place in the World surveys four and eight years ago – has increased. Currently, 52% say the United States “should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.” Just 38% disagree with the statement. This is the most lopsided balance in favor of the U.S. “minding its own business” in the nearly 50-year history of the measure.

 

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After the recent near-miss with U.S. military action against Syria, the NATO mission in Libya and lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, about half of Americans (51%) say the United States does too much in helping solve world problems, while just 17% say it does too little and 28% think it does the right amount. When those who say the U.S. does “too much” internationally are asked to describe in their own words why they feel this way, nearly half (47%) say problems at home, including the economy, should get more attention.

As we’ve reported for years, the American public is sick of war.

Pew notes that even members of the Council on Foreign Relations agree:

When asked why the public has become less supportive of global engagements, 42% of CFR members point to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or explicitly cite “war fatigue.” About a quarter (28%) mention the struggling U.S. economy or the costs of international engagement. Other factors cited are the ineffectiveness of recent U.S. interventions (mentioned by 19%) and failures of U.S. leadership (17%). (For more on how members of the Council on Foreign Relations view America’s Place in the World, see section 6).

Because war is bad for the economy and increases terrorism, it’s time to listen to the American people … and the Founding Fathers.

 

Bonus:  

They’re Going to Dump the Fukushima Radiation Into the Ocean

 

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Thu, 12/05/2013 - 22:59 | 4220192 Miffed Microbio...
Miffed Microbiologist's picture

Tom, thank you for such kind words. I am honored. I have deep respect for your incredible mind and wish my math skills were of your caliber. You are a fascinating man. Your deep swings into nihilism do overshadow many of your enduring qualities however which saddens me. Perhaps due to some unmentionable pain of the past. I will keep you in my thoughts and pray for peace and happiness to find its way to you. I have lived in deep darkness from which I thought I'd never escape so I have empathy.

Miffed;-)

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 16:52 | 4218958 August
August's picture

>>if a productive person were to become ill, I may be able through my skills return him to a productive life but I build and produce nothing that adds to the economy.

Do not sell yourself short. Performing or supervising quality microbiology work improves the lives of many, much more so than running a fast food franchise, or a TBTF bank.

I'm in the medical field myself, and in some sense also "produce nothing"; if you or a loved one develop cancer, though, I think you'd find my services very valuable.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 14:08 | 4218254 IdiocracyIsAlre...
IdiocracyIsAlreadyHere's picture

I did think you were concerned about it, Miffed, your posts are generally spot-on.  I just wanted to provide some clarification for the broader ZH readership, more than a few who seem to think that medical "socialism" began with the passage of the ACA. 

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 22:06 | 4216097 Lordflin
Lordflin's picture

Since when have the banksters been into solving the world's problems?

We lament the killing of women and children with chemical weapons in Syria, where the Qutar wishes to build a natural gas line, and Russia is vying to maintain its monopoly of the same, while at the same time we drone women and children, and men too, but nobody cares about them, throughout the Middle East.

We worry about the Taliban, who purportedly have bedded with Al Qaeda, and consequently invade Afganistan, and surprise of surprises the Opium production jumps from 300 tons per year, to 3500 tons after our first year of occupation. Mean while we aid Al Qaeda in Syria...

We help to over throw a dictator in Egypt who threatens to stop playing bankster ball, and then help to install a radical Muslim government in its place. And when the people turn on our replacement we turn our backs on the new popularly supported government.

The unwillingness of Middle East governments to end bank domination appears to be a spreading disease throughout the Middle East... There was Saddam Hussein, our one time alley now deposed...

Iran, whose intention it was to start an Oil exchange demoninated in Euros...

Mubarak... whatever happened to his gold anyway?

Where in any of this has there been any intent to solve 'the people's' problems.

Bankers are the most evil scum the world has produced in a long tradition of producing evil scum, and we are merely the long arm of injustice...

 

 

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 22:20 | 4216127 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

As they say, "All wars are bankers' wars," which is true, except that it misses the point about what it is that they and all who would rather steal than work depend on:

http://www.franz-oppenheimer.de/state0.htm

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 03:16 | 4216769 hidingfromhelis
hidingfromhelis's picture

A much larger majority of Americans didn't want TARP for the banksters, but guess what happened anyway?  Do you think our MIC and bankster-owned legislator puppets are going to disobey their masters on this issue?

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 21:57 | 4216066 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

In a sane world Ron Paul would be President, our tropps would all be back home, Jon Corzine would be in jail for 20 years, and Kim Kardashian would be working a strip club or be an attorney.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 12:52 | 4217853 exi1ed0ne
exi1ed0ne's picture

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is hunted down to fix his blindness deficiency.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 03:38 | 4216786 RazvanM
RazvanM's picture

Who is Kim Kardashian?

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 16:13 | 4218818 Ruffcut
Ruffcut's picture

A disgruntled porn star?

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 22:17 | 4216114 rationaldemocracy
rationaldemocracy's picture

The world we have is the world we (collectively) have allowed to take form..as long as the masses are blind to extremist media they will collectively shape the world for the benefit of the few.

Anyway, Ron Paul in power would not change anything, at all, whatsoever.Ron Paul is not an intelligent man (otherwise why would he be a public racist?) and under his leadership the average American would suffer more than under Obama, but perhaps the balance sheet would be better - that is after-all, all what libertarians are about.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 15:43 | 4218699 North Sea Cowboy
North Sea Cowboy's picture

Never go Full Retard.

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 23:09 | 4216284 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Let the US be the first to try panarchy, seeing as though democracy has been shown to be the abject failure that every intelligent person knew it was.

Besides, it would be nice to see people like you living in a domestic version of North Korea.

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 23:32 | 4216351 rationaldemocracy
rationaldemocracy's picture

You always have to pick the worst example of socialism? Do you only have one example to pick? only north Korea? Do you have any idea how many capitalist countries have failed? Far, far, far more than the ones that have failed under socialism, pick almost any country in Africa or Latin America and it's a failed capitalist state. By the the way, most socialist countries have managed to arrive at the space age, how about that? can capitalism claim the same? of course not, there IS a reason why Australia and Europe are moving towards socialism isn't there? Will the U.S be the last country still stuck in 19th century capitalism?

free markets are not free

the same retarded idea as free energy

the sickness of 19th century thinking by men in ivory towers!

 

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 09:15 | 4217181 Advoc8tr
Advoc8tr's picture

By definition Libertarians are happy for YOU to be socialist  if you want to. By contrast socialists must FORCE everyone to play.  As far as I'm concerned Libertarianism is about personal liberty ... the financial concepts are a result of simply being consistent in your philosophy ... a price to pay in some instances perhaps but the philosophy allows for groups of people to choose to participate in group schemes where they feel it beneficial ... just not through force or coersion by others.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 00:05 | 4216453 JungleJim
JungleJim's picture

Rick Wolffe ... is that you ?

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 23:51 | 4216402 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

YAAFM.  Europe is a financial shithole right now, and they've been on the track to socialism for a while.  Not something that we should aspire to.  Then again, we haven't had real capitalism in quite some time in this country.  The very idea that a private institution is TBTF should be enough to clue you into this.  When we fail, it won't be due to capitalism.  It will be due to corruption and chronyism. 

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 23:55 | 4216412 rationaldemocracy
rationaldemocracy's picture

We do have perfect free market capitalism right now. Any private entity that becomes successful will start to manipulate the government like exactly what has happened to the federal reserve. In a free market everything is fair game, don't you get it? The whole idea of a free market is some sort of fantasy, any real free market will decrease entropy and will take government hostage which is exactly what has happened in this crapola of a country. 

Damn right you have not had real capitalism for a while because you've been living with the consequences of it for the last 100 years. Ron Paul types just want to reset the playing field so that we can all go through the same process again.

 

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 10:47 | 4217433 fallout11
fallout11's picture

"Any private entity that becomes successful will start to manipulate the government...."
Oddly enough Austrian school economist and libertarian proponent Joseph Schumpeter (go read "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy") would agree with this statement. Too many wanna-be libertarians here on Zero Hedge do not really know their own playbook.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 17:34 | 4219097 g speed
g speed's picture

You are mixing causes with results-- I suggest if gov't is not all powerful then manipulating it is of little consequince. Most are under the sway of the propagndist when they give omnipotence to the governments of the world. I (and the little red book of Mao) like to think that gov't is manipulation and nothing but exercise of power from the barrel of a gun.

Fri, 12/06/2013 - 07:38 | 4220770 fallout11
fallout11's picture

I actually agree with this, but large/powerful economic entities/parties have always turned to corruption, graft, bribery, lobbying, etc, to wield influence and maintain non-free-market economic dominance, especially if/when it yields sufficient economic gain. The best government you can buy! For example, wealthy Roman citizenry, estate owners, and senators wrote themselves special dispensation and tax benefits right into the law, it has always been a problem in societies with sufficient stagnation and power accumulation. Since you must have at least some government to have rule of law (and hence working markets), the best you can hope for is to keep this undue influence and corruption to a minimum. 
You get more of what you incentivize (and less of what you do not).

Back to my original post, Joseph Schumpeter, a classically liberal pro-free-market Austrian school economist, feared that large corporate, bureaucratic economies (which were run on a mixture of Keynesianism and Corporate Statism, rather than true laissez-faire free markets) were going to destroy free markets by strangling the Entrepreneur and Innovator under a blanket of institutionalized stagnation and collusion, as the bureaucratic monoliths of 1950's America and the Zaibatsu corporations ("preferred merchants") of Japan were anything but free market entities.  He saw the future well enough. Look at the decline of small business ownership in the US since 1950 (down over 75%), or the bought and paid for clowns in DC. "We recognized the senator from Coca-Cola."

To illustrate the point, we now have the Affordable Care Act, a tool by which the sufficiently successful and powerful (big insurance), through corruption and influence, use the power of the government to forcefully coerce us all to purchase an overpriced, substandard product at the point of a gun, a product we do not want and should not even need in a more free market. Proof of rationaldemocracy's (and Schumpeter's) original point if there ever was one.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 00:42 | 4216577 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Son, do you understand that to govern means to control?

The only thing that has the possibility to be free to do whatever it wishes is government and the world has been a pretty shitty place for thousands of years because of that.

Mankind has to end his infantile state or his infantile state will end mankind.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 00:00 | 4216424 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

 

We do have perfect free market capitalism right now.

...

Damn right you have not had real capitalism for a while because you've been living with the consequences of it for the last 100 years.

Grade A contradiction right there, champ.  You expect people to take you seriously? 

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 17:24 | 4219072 g speed
g speed's picture

you're a betterman than I ---you held your nose and read rational-- s crap-- I quit reading after his first line in his first comment. 

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 21:57 | 4216065 doctor10
doctor10's picture

"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."

 

Ayn Rand

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 21:58 | 4216064 max2205
max2205's picture

+1

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 21:57 | 4216063 FredFlintstone
FredFlintstone's picture

This is somewhat encouraging. It will be interesting if the will of the people holds any sway with elected officials. Or maybe the NSA, IRS, et al have them all intimidated. 

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 22:16 | 4216046 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

 

When a majority says that the USG should mind its own business domestically — as in get the fuck out of our lives — we'll be approaching the tipping point.

 

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 22:40 | 4216178 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

"The [American] public thinks that the nation does too much to solve world problems,"

That's a joke, right?

The US causes most of the world's problems.

Wed, 12/04/2013 - 23:12 | 4216245 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

It's the greatest rogue state in the world and won't survive the decade intact.

Mark my word.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 00:31 | 4216539 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

Who's the gnat flying around my posts?

Explain yourself, or admit that you're abreacting to the truth.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 05:08 | 4216841 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

with jung, i suspect though traumata of clearly aetiological significance were occasionally present, the majority of them appeared very improbable. Many traumata were so unimportant, even so normal, that they could be regarded at most as a pretext for the neurosis. But what especially aroused my criticism was the fact that not a few traumata were simply inventions of fantasy and had never happened at all.

plus my screen still keeps blanking out on this site.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 07:30 | 4216968 zipit
zipit's picture

Translation: I'm a nutter but don't know it.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 14:34 | 4218399 The Alarmist
The Alarmist's picture

Is he sure it's his monitor blinking out??? Maybe he should try a tin-foil hat before abandoning ZH.

Thu, 12/05/2013 - 18:26 | 4219271 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Of course, since "It" doesn't even exist, the whole question of "It" minding "Its own business" is wholly moot, and therefore subject to anyone's whim.

There's simply nothing quite like the delusion of statists as a tool of governance.

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