China also spending billions to stimulate the economy. But wait...

[NJ5]

Neither the American nor the European government have given money to bankers. They have LENT it to them.

Often at interest rates below inflation, meaning they are indeed giving money away. What about the plans to purchase bad mortgages from banks? Unless you believe there will be another similar bubble in the housing market, that also amounts to giving money away.

we have the infrastructure

Not the one we need, or as much as we need, and in many cases the one we do have needs upgrading. It's worse in the US which is more dependent on oil and cars than Europe. Where's the infrastructure to withstand oil prices as high and higher than the last spike which got curtailed by the recession?

I like living in a rich, democratic nation with clean rivers opposed to a pretty autocratic nation where a hundreds of millions of peasants are still in third-world conditions and the rivers will eat the flesh from your bones.

Sure, but what does that have to do with this thread?

@steven787:

Oh, what were we disagreeing on?

Perhaps not much after all ;)