Posted on 12/31/2007 1:25:17 AM PST by america4vr
Under the heading “The end of a U.S.-centric world?” the PostGlobal section of The Washington Post website recently declared that “U.S. influence is in steep decline.” It was just the latest verse in a growing chorus of declinist doom-saying at home and abroad.
In 2004, Pat Buchanan lamented “the decline and fall of the greatest industrial republic the world had ever seen.” In 2005, The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee concluded that Hurricane Katrina exposed “a hollow superpower.” In 2007, Pierre Hassner of the Paris-based National Foundation for Political Science declared, “It will not be the New American Century.”
And the dirge goes on.
It’s a familiar tune, of course. We heard it in the early 1990s, when economists, political scientists and pundits were quipping that while the U.S. and Soviet military superpowers waged the Cold War, it was economic superpowers Japan and Germany that won it; in the 1980s, when Paul Kennedy led the chorus by concluding that America was tumbling toward “imperial overstretch;” in the 1970s, when the U.S. slipped into a malaise; and in the 1960s, which began with the U.S. unable to dislodge a communist dictator 90 miles off its coast and ended with the U.S. unable to hold back the spread of communism half-a-world away.
But the declinists were wrong yesterday. And if their record—and America’s—are any indication, they are just as wrong today.
Any discussion of U.S. power has to begin with its enormous economy. At $13.13 trillion, the U.S. economy represents 20 percent of global output. It’s growing faster than Britain’s, Australia’s, Germany’s, Japan’s, Canada’s, even faster than the vaunted European Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at american.com ...
All sorts of historic studies, computer analyses, charts foretelling how the intersection of the x,y axes was focal point of utter economic gloom and doom about to occur ONLY 2 years after the article's initial publication (how convenient!) but never seeming to come to fruition.
Who can forget the 1980's, the MSM constantly blaring the news of America's imminent demise, its only salvation the adoption of the Japanese corporate mindset that seemed bent on global domination, against America as revenge for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
How empires have all suffered ignominious falls from power, hegemony, America destined for a particularly well-deserved comeuppance, punishment for crimes against humanity.
Well, you miserable Chomsky-ites! Maybe not for a while, maybe not for a long, long time to come.
Pat Buchanan, the Noam Chomsky for people who think Noam Chomsky isn't anti-semitic enough. :P
The WORST declinists, sadly, seem to be on the right. The doom and gloomers who were telling me that the Japanese were going to take over America in the 1980s, the Mexicans in the 1990s, and the Chinese today. Pat Buchanan, white courtesy phone!
This is the kind of article I am tempted to spam everyone I know with. (But I won’t.)
What’s your tagline supposed to mean?
One only has to look at the extreme bureaucracy of the EU to see they pose no real economic threat. Everything is regulated... Even the curve of a banana...
As far as China, I believe China has or is about to peak in terms of extremely low cost production. China has massive problems that have not yet been addressed. From funny money banking to total environmental devastation. The true cost of poisoning the air, ground and water is just starting to become apparent. There’s going to be massive costs in cleaning it up and future business won’t be able to operate like they have increasing costs significantly. And then there's the people. They are being poisoned and are becoming aware of it. They are starting to demand better healthier lives. That won't be cheap... And last but not least, I don't believe economic freedom can coexist with a political straight jacket. One or the other is going to have to give.
Just my two cents...
THE TRUTH. Reagan was a lifelong free trader, and pushed for what would eventually become NAFTA, as a matter of fact (I don’t consider NAFTA true free trade, but that’s another thread). All these paleoprotectionist who still claim to be the heirs of Ronaldus Magnus are liars.
I’m 45 years old and I’ve been hearing about America’s “decline” all of my life. I guess someday it will happen but it appears to be something for my great-great-grandkids to worry about.
“International Influence” has allways been an intangible and fleeting chimera...It’s loss may be regretable, but it does not change what can be touched, felt, seen.
Excellent article. God bless America.
Wow! Always need a reminder now and again that we drew the lucky card at birth. Thanks!!!
You may be giving them too much credit, as deceit requires understanding the truth that's being perverted. Pat Buchanan probably had no idea that he began Clinton's rise to power by screwing up the speech at G H Bush's convention.
What's done is done. The current shift is Buchanan's loss and our gain, and that's a zero-sum model I can live with.
now , wait a minute, that wasn't such a bad speech. The initial polls on it were favorable. Then they started in on it with the negative commentary. Meanwhile ,the corresponding speech, I believe seconding the nomination, at the Democrat Convention was given by Maxine Waters, lately, at the time, of South Central LA fame. The networks made sure that they shut off her microphone,or rather the network feed, then screened any sight of her from the TV audience by standing between the cameras and the podium to do their yammering. Only if you switched over to C-Span did you hear her ignorance.
Great post. Read somewhere that the numbers for China were estimated by the numbers of trucks leaving factories and other means but were found to be wrong by quite a bit once China opened its books(Lots of $1.00 items). But what I really liked was this...
“While the declinists routinely remind us that the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 15 countries combined, they seldom note that the current defense budget accounts for barely four percent of GDP—a smaller percentage than the U.S. spent on defense at any time during the Cold War. In fact, defense outlays consumed as much as 10 percent of GDP in the 1950s, and 6 percent in the 1980s.
The diplomats who roam the corridors of the UN and the corporate chiefs who run the EU’s sprawling public-private conglomerates dare not say it aloud, but the American military does the dirty work to keep the global economy going—and growing. “The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist,” as Thomas Friedman observed in 1999.”
You are correct. In the context of this article, and our current situation, the only thing that will bring America down is more socialism. Our own government, including and especially our President, seems intent on bringing about that result.
great post a4v......
in the words of a country song....
‘when yer runnin down my country, hoss yer walkin on the fightin side of me....’
i just wish the rats would abandon the good ship USA and do it really really soon....dang cant they read this stuff and realize this country is a headin down to davey jones’ locker ...in a big damn hurry?
Plus, i gotta side my house this spring and in order to pay for this project i need to keep all the tax money im currently shoveling out to them immigration dept boys...
Time to leave folks before it’s too late....go somewhere else now, and get your free stuff ..
heh heh heh....
Yeah, that historical revisionism regarding Reagan by some of the paleos here reminds me of the way the Soviets used to airbrush “inconvenient” individuals out of their stock photos of political leaders.
But you mispelled trader.
Great article
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