Kevin Phillips's Imagined Questions (#167; Topic Q)

Kevin Phillips, a well known political and economic commentator for the last quarter of a century in USA, has published another important, insightful, and thought-provoking book, American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century (2006, 462 pages). He raised many "imagined" (Phillips's own word) questions -- questions that might be posed by an Asian fiancier or exporter, circa 2005: "Why don't the Americans take care of their industry and invest in it? Why do they dither over primitive and antiscientific religion? Why are their children so far behind our own students? Why can't they cut back on their foolish and unaffordable overconsumption of oil? How far can we -- should we -- support them?" (p 360). These are "imagined" questions in the sense that the questioner could have been an American financier in Manhanttan, circa 1919, with "they" referring to the Britons, and with the questioner "confident of [his/her] coming hour." I have no answers to these good questions; all I can do is to set up a new category Q (for queries) to receive these questions for the record.