USA Today: Blame America!

I don't know if anyone really reads USA Today besides folks stranded at airports and hotel guests who get a free copy shoved under the door, but I still thought this inane editorial deserved some reply:

Global meeting signals why U.S. must change its ways

This might some day come to be remembered as the moment when U.S. dominance of the world economy began to end. In fact, several of the participants are already viewing it that way, some gleefully...

Seems like the editorial staff is pretty gleeful about the possibility as well, although they offer no evidence at all to butress their case. Instead, they just zig to their next unproven talking point:

Not so long ago, a meeting like this would have been confined to the Group of 7 nations (the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy) or the G-8 (the G-7 plus Russia). This meeting involved the G-20, which includes emerging economies such as those of China, Brazil and India. All blame America for leading the world into this crisis — a fact virtually no one disputes — and all now want a bigger say in how the world economy works.

"A fact virtually no one disputes"? Really? Who did you ask, exactly?

Now while it is most likely true that America's economic downturn hurts the economies of virtually all nations, that's primarily because we as a people are the greatest consumer nation on earth, as well as the greatest producer nation on earth. When we lose our capacity to produce (and thus consume), of course other economies will suffer. But if they "blame" us for this temporary state of affairs, where is the credit from these nations - and from USA Today - that it is our nation's investment power and consumer strength that has help lift all of these other countries into whatever wealth they currently have?

Blame us? They should thank us. But I guess since we are dealing with an "airport daily" here, we should not expect such surface-scratching.

They finish with a nonsensical ending that contradicts the reality of the President and party they worked so hard to elect:

But it will have to lead first by example, changing its habits and turning away from the fantasy that we can borrow our way to prosperity. As President-elect Barack Obama said Saturday, "the road ahead will be long and the work will be hard."

The same Obama that has promised to raise taxes, thus depleting the buying power of American consumers? The same Obama who wants to spend a trillion dollars on nationalized health care? The same Obama who leads a party that is looking to spend an addtional $25 billion to bail out GM, which is the epitome of a company that has tried to "borrow its way to prosperity"?

Dudes, if you want anyone to take your paper seriously...try writing seriously. OK?