That's the gist of it, food production per capita has always been the world mark of economic wealth. Unfortunately, we can't go back to being a food producer for our wealth as mechanization has all but eliminanted human work requirements and world food trade/transportation has covered the seasonal bumps and bounces. We put all our marbles into industrial production, was the king for a long run, and pumped our standard of living up to where we're no longer competitive with emerging industrial countries. China is where we were 100 years ago, with primarily an agrarian society, unlimited natural resources, government encouragement and virtually unlimited capital being thrown at it. Jobs are the primary issue in our country, currently transforming into a service economy driven by consumer spending, and that will become more dramatic in a relatively short period of time.

That's the basis of my disagreement with wasting money we don't have, lives and effort in Iraq. We have more pressing problems than trying to spread democracy or whatever the current political spin happens to be. Nuke the terrorists. The reason we developed atomic weapons was to save American lives. Those values have been forgotten along the road to prosperity and our youth, the true wealth of any country, will eventually pay the price for squandering our national wealth.