Author Edward Luce led the pessimists on the panel discussion on 'The Decline of America: Westerners and Resterners' pointing to the "triple cocktail" of factors that are contributing to the American decline.
"The middle-class income is stagnating, there has been a decline in upward mobility and the inequality between the rich and poor is widening. This is the triple cocktail of causes that is fuelling my pessimism about United States," said Luce, the author of 'Time to Start Thinking: America and the Spectre of Descent.'
The other panelists, who included authors Ian Buruma, Frank Savage and Peter Hussler, agreed with him leading Luce to remark in a lighter vein, "The other pessimistic thing is that everyone agrees with me on the issue."
Buruma pointed to yet another cause that was a cause of worry.
"The real danger is if too many Americans give in to fear of the outside world," he said, to which Luce added pithily "With US not wanting to let in the next Mohammad Atta, it is missing out on letting in the next Bill Gates."
Savage furthered Luce's observations by adding to the list of factors leading to weakening of American power.
"We need to pull our act together... The education system is in a decline and the public schools are terrible. Besides, the financial crisis
