USA: The Decaying Empire

[Muji.Iqbal]

Richard Wolff on the decline of the US empire and the rise of China and BRICS​

Well the OIC sees China as an alternative to USA. I hope China eclipses USA as the world's largest economy in Nominal GDP quickly!

China still needs $9 Trillion more in order to be on par with USA.

China's 1.41 billion population vs. USA's 333 million

 

[Muji.Iqbal]

Perhaps Pakistan can copy China's and Japan's economic plans to improve the Pakistani Nominal GDP.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

You from Southie? You must be Wicked Smaht. Didn’t know you were Matt Damon?



P.S. can you believe it’s been 30 years since this movie came out.

No, not Southie and both Ben Afleck and Matt Damon never lived in Boston (although both Afleck and Damon apparently did live in a crappy section of Cambridge near Central Square which was/is/will forever be a complete #$%@&% pit no matter what looney songs Cambridge liberals try to sing about how nice it is). I will admit my Boston neighborhood was much better than theirs.

Matt Damon's wise-ass character would likely have got himself beaten up or killed. It was not believable at all.

Edit: Central Square in Cambridge (Cambridge is like the San Francisco of the East)

The liberal song:

LOL!!!! A hipster neighborhood full of professionals...hahahaha..hmmm...same way they describe San Francisco

But here's reality:

Your bottle of cheap red is now behind barricades after a shoplifting surge at Central Square Target - Cambridge Day

Rampant shoplifting has led to installation of metal accordion barriers around alcohol at the Central Square Target, and officials are looking at additional measures.

www.cambridgeday.com

Crime is costing Central Square its Starbucks - Cambridge Day

The Starbucks coffee shop at 655 Massachusetts Ave. opened a quarter-century ago, staying through previous ups and downs in the economy and trends in crime.

www.cambridgeday.com

Well we know the reality of "all those professionals" hanging around.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I always found it intriguing that Europe does not have the level of entrepreneurism that the US does. One would have thought that a strong social services safety net, common in Western Europe, would be more conducive to risk taking but that doesn't seem to be the case.

In any case, the US remains the destination of choice for people with entrepreneurial spirit, not least because of the huge local market and the abundance of investment capital.

You can't really make generalizations. I have heard Americans in Europe say the same thing but on the other hand most Americans work 9 to 5 jobs in a place they don't own nor have any say in how it is run.

Also back to my suburbs vs city I find the following video annoying with its generalizations because obviously these people lived in some super crappy city and didn't realize they didn't have to get on a plane to Europe to escape it. I don't flinch when hearing fireworks and I don't think everybody on the bus has a gun. However if I stubbornly lived in a crappy city all my life I likely would.

love the Liberal hosts too...only 3 countries in the world have the death penalty

 

[Developereo]

You can't really make generalizations. I have heard Americans in Europe say the same thing

This is starting to get off-topic and I know I started it but there are plenty of videos on YouTube, mostly by Europeans themselves, lamenting how American tech companies dominate Europe but the reverse is rare.

 

[FuturePAF]

This is starting to get off-topic and I know I started it but there are plenty of videos on YouTube, mostly by Europeans themselves, lamenting how American tech companies dominate Europe but the reverse is rare.

America is the best at attracting talent and therefore producing IP. New Patents and being at the forefront of many technologies along with being one of the lowest cost to make modern IP, means the US is not easily going to be dislodged from number one spot. America also spends a lot on R&D, so basically gonna stay on top.

 

[Proud Thamizhan]

All empires must surely end but I would replace the UK in your example with the Roman Empire.

I am not a history expert but most previous empires either succumbed militarily or became irrelevant due to external powers. The only exception I know of is the Roman Empire which died primarily because of internal decay.

It is unlikely that any country will surpass the US militarily or technologically in the near future. The Chinese are impressive and may even surpass the US in some technical fields, but their superiority will not be at dominance level. In any case, the US will take down the world militarily before relinquishing its dominance. Hum to dubenge sanam, ...

The threat to US dominance, therefore, comes from within: income divides, ethnic divides, ideological divides, etc. None of these are at anywhere near crisis level, but all divides exacerbate when the economy fails. However, when the US economy falls to that level, the rest of the world won't be looking pretty either. Ironically, the US desire to decouple with China may be the best gift the US ever gave to China.

have you considered the positive aspects of the "divides" you cite? these divides, inequalities are what drive human desire, ambition, endeavor and enterprise. A poor man looks at someone who 'made it' and "WANTS" to so succeed himself. If he directs that desire to honest smart efforts he also succeeds. If he resorts to stealing, he eventually loses.

Right now USA is unmatched in resources, higher education, and technological prowess.

 

[Developereo]

Matt Damon's wise-ass character would likely have got himself beaten up or killed. It was not believable at all.

LOL, I never watched that movie so can't say definitively but, from that clip, he didn't have that strong of an accent.

I went to undergrad in the Boston area and my sophomore year girlfriend had no accent -- and then she took me to see her folks! Her mom was from Minnesota, relatively recent Swedish stock, but her dad's side was Beantown through and through for generations. And, man, what an accent, lol.

have you considered the positive aspects of the "divides" you cite? these divides, inequalities are what drive human desire, ambition, endeavor and enterprise. A poor man looks at someone who 'made it' and "WANTS" to so succeed himself. If he directs that desire to honest smart efforts he also succeeds. If he resorts to stealing, he eventually loses.

Right now USA is unmatched in resources, higher education, and technological prowess.

So you are saying we need poor people in society to drive innovation and entrepreneurship? You should get a job writing speeches for Republican candidates, lol.

I don't think there is any correlation between socioeconomic status and entrepreneurship. I have had several friends who started companies. Some are worth tens of millions, at least one worth hundred million plus. All of them were middle class like me. None of them -- not a single one -- started the company for financial reasons. They all had a passion or an idea and they wanted to try it out. While the financial rewards are always welcome, the thing that kept them going was their passion and the knowledge that they were accomplishing something, providing jobs and livelihood to lots of people, etc.

 

[UKBengali]

US would have declined anyway but Zionists are accelerating its decline.

In geopolitics it is a zero sum game as when someone else catches up to you your relative power automatically declines, even though in absolute terms you may be more wealthy and have a stronger military then before.

China should match US in overall military, economic and technological power by sometime in the 2030s and then eclipse it going forward.

 

[VCheng]

US would have declined anyway but Zionists are accelerating its decline.

In geopolitics it is a zero sum game as when someone else catches up to you your relative power automatically declines, even though in absolute terms you may be more wealthy and have a stronger military then before.

China should match US in overall military, economic and technological power by sometime in the 2030s and then eclipse it going forward.

Would. Should. Says it all for now.

 

[F-22Raptor]

so your awesome wife's story = average American immigrant's story/path in US?
no bro!

More than 10.5M immigrants have CHOSEN to become naturalized US citizens since 2010. Yes there are many successful immigrants in the US.

Success of legal immigrants largely depends on their work ethic. If you come to this country unwilling to learn English, unwilling to go to school, then yes it will be difficult for them to advance their lives.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

If he directs that desire to honest smart efforts he also succeeds. If he resorts to stealing, he eventually loses.

This is the core problem that Liberals are trying to solve by raising the threshold needed for theft punishments...and their "solution" is completely wrecking cities by increasing crime and contributing to the "Urban Doom Loop".

Pretty much every company runs a criminal background check due to fears of being sued if an employee is known for having done something bad.. If you have a felony you are unemployable.

Shoplifting can give you a felony record (if you really try) so to mitigate this Liberals raised the minimum theft need to be charged with a felony to a ridiculous high. Now you need to steal over $1000. This has generated a crime wave that these same Liberals are in complete denial of it existing (and of course denying having caused anything bad).

Stores are closing in cities due to theft...and the reaction is "I have no idea why this is happening...it must be racism".

Businesses move, less workers go to cities, tax revenue to pay for public services goes down, people with money start moving away, tax revenue goes down even more, cities attract more lower income people, tax budget now goes to social services for low income instead of middle income needs, more people move out, tax revenue goes down even more. Cities can't pay for things anymore like subway upkeep or paving roads.

City neighborhoods end up with no supermarkets or other big chains. Fill up with check cashing services, liquor stores, and high priced no-name convenience stores.

In the end people scratch their heads and say "Why are things so bad? I just don't understand why."

 

[Beijingwalker]

America has been better than Europeans.
But
No matter how much it tries to hide it, America has been an imperialist and criminal country too.

They share the same imperial genes. US was one of the 8 foreign imperial powers who invaded China 100 years ago. They massacred the locals, looted and burned down the city of Beijing. They never formally apologized for those crimes against humanity. In a sense,they are still doing the same in some countries today.

 

[Beijingwalker]

With warming shelters closed, many homeless people in Portland fear freezing to death​

The severe weather state of emergency is over in Multnomah County, and warming centers are closed, leaving homeless people in search of a dry place to stay.



4:22 PM PST January 19, 2024

PORTLAND, Ore. — As ice coats the streets of Portland, homeless people make paths out of cardboard to get around. Many in Old Town Wednesday morning had just left warming centers, which closed earlier in the day.

“They just said it was time to go and kicked us out,” said one man, who goes by the street name ‘Knives.’ “So, I had the idea to come here and light things on fire,” Knives continued, referring to the wooden pallets he was burning on the sidewalk to help him and his friends stay warm.

“If they could’ve just let us stay for the rest of the day until the snow melted, that would have been ideal,” his friend, Casey, said of the warming centers.
Multnomah County opened a record number of warming centers since Friday. They were scheduled to close at 8 a.m. Wednesday, but given the weather, some were kept open until noon.

Homeless people left the emergency shelters with new supplies like tents, sleeping bags and a tarp — yet those supplies only go so far given the new, stricter policies around homeless camping in Portland.

“Quite literally, it’s illegal to camp, so what’s the point? Every time I have a tent, it gets stolen anyway,” said one homeless man who was packing up his supplies.
Since Friday, four people died in Portland from suspected hypothermia, including one woman who spent time at Blanchet House, a popular day center for homeless people in Old Town. Another person died from suspected hypothermia while inside their Tigard home.

“I don’t even know what to say to that somebody dying because they’re freezing to death; that’s kind of scary,” said Marcel who’s homeless in Old Town but was able to make it to a warming center over the weekend.

In Northeast Portland, a church caught fire early Sunday. Two pastors who lived there died. Reggie, a homeless man who often stayed there, tried to save them.
“For a while, I thought these hands were strong, but they failed when the time came. We couldn’t get to them fast enough,” he said, fighting back tears, hands covered in burns and blisters. “I had to tear the building apart with my bare hands. I couldn’t do it.”

Portland Fire and Rescue has not confirmed the cause of that fire, but there are talks of it starting from a generator. The fire department said to KGW that they aren’t ruling out the possibility of the cause being weather-related.

As the storm’s aftermath makes life outside that much harder, just making it through the night is a fear shared by far too many.

“I mean, people are all still cold and hypothermic from before; it’s going to be ongoing,” Casey said.

Two other people died during the storm: An elderly man in Lake Oswego after a tree fell on his home and hit him while he was sleeping, as well as one person living in an RV in Southeast Portland; he died after a tree fell on that RV and caused a fire.

 

[VCheng]

Fears. Okay then.