The American empire is coming to an end. The U.S. economy is being drained by wars in the Middle East and vast military expansion around the globe. It is burdened by growing deficits, along with the devastating effects of deindustrialization and global trade agreements. Our democracy has been captured and destroyed by corporations that steadily demand more tax cuts, more deregulation and impunity from prosecution for massive acts of financial fraud, all the while looting trillions from the U.S. treasury in the form of bailouts. The nation has lost the power and respect needed to induce allies in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa to do its bidding. Add to this the mounting destruction caused by climate change and you have a recipe for an emerging dystopia. Overseeing this descent at the highest levels of the federal and state governments is a motley collection of imbeciles, con artists, thieves, opportunists and warmongering generals. And to be clear, I am speaking about Democrats, too.
The empire will limp along, steadily losing influence until the dollar is dropped as the world’s reserve currency, plunging the United States into a crippling depression and instantly forcing a massive contraction of its military machine.
Short of a sudden and widespread popular revolt, which does not seem likely, the death spiral appears unstoppable, meaning the United States as we know it will no longer exist within a decade or, at most, two.
Under every measurement, from financial growth and infrastructure investment to advanced technology, including supercomputers, space weaponry and cyberwarfare, we are being rapidly overtaken by the Chinese.
Many of the estimated 69 empires that have existed throughout history lacked competent leadership in their decline, having ceded power to monstrosities such as the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero. In the United States, the reins of authority may be in the grasp of the first in a line of depraved demagogues.
“For the majority of Americans, the 2020s will likely be remembered as a demoralizing decade of rising prices, stagnant wages, and fading international competitiveness,” McCoy writes. The loss of the dollar as the global reserve currency will see the U.S. unable to pay for its huge deficits by selling Treasury bonds, which will be drastically devalued at that point. There will be a massive rise in the cost of imports. Unemployment will explode. Domestic clashes over what McCoy calls “insubstantial issues” will fuel a dangerous hypernationalism that could morph into an American fascism.
A discredited elite, suspicious and even paranoid in an age of decline, will see enemies everywhere. The array of instruments created for global dominance—wholesale surveillance, the evisceration of civil liberties, sophisticated torture techniques, militarized police, the massive prison system, the thousands of militarized drones and satellites—will be employed in the homeland. The empire will collapse and the nation will consume itself within our lifetimes if we do not wrest power from those who rule the corporate state.
My take: I have no doubt America is coming apart at the seams, but my take is that it’s due to the lack of any sort of moral compass present in the country anymore, i.e., “everyone does what is right in his own eyes.”
20T in debt cannot/will not be paid off. The unfunded liabilities are absolutely breathtaking, and are untenable. These numbers are so huge that they become almost abstract.
I think it probably has more to do with a government that can’t balance a budget, has incredible waste, is overextended in countries we have no business being in, and two parties that seek to further divide us on pointless issues just so they can retain power at the expense of the well being of our nation. But yeah, maybe it’s the fact that gay people want to get married and people are smoking the devils lettuce.
This problem is one that will outlast many of the people in power creating it. They are sociopathic and only care about when they are alive and what happens today. There is no care given to the future, thats some one else’s problem.
Its a downward spiral and self feeding cycle. The military, mostly our Navy and the 7th carrier fleet are what keeps the dollar in power. It is what makes it so we don’t have to worry about money we owe people. But to keep up the charade we need to keep feeding the Military Industrial complex. To keep feeding the Military industrial complex we need to keep borrowing money and printing it. Once we stop feeding it, we loose absolute military domination in the world theatre and once again become liable for our financial liabilities.
The best thing that could happen is a collapse as soon as possible, the longer this goes on for the worse it gets. The sooner it ends the sooner we can rebuild and the sooner the people making these decisions are gone.
And have no doubt when we collapse it will have severe global repercussions, which why the rest of the world plays along in addition to the threat of our military might.
Also don’t forget the “American Empire” Is only a post WW2 thing. We don’t need to be a global empire. We simply need to get back to an America first isolationist America.
Wasn’t even talking about that. I was talking about it being okay to cheat, lie, or otherwise do wrong at nearly every level of society–from the checker at Wal-Mart who steals your credit card number to the politician who pads his own pocket while refusing to vote on behalf of his constituents’ wishes.
I could give a crap if gay people get married or if someone smokes pot (as long as he’s not impaired in a way that endangers other people–then we ARE talking about that person).
The US isn’t an empire in the classical sense. But we go to and support enough countries that the title may de facto apply. Ironically, the same reason that will likely be one of (if not the biggest) reason for our downfall–economics–is the same reason every ‘real’ empire has fallen.
I agree, the moral compass is gone. It’s not gay marriage, marijuana, and all that stuff. It’s lack of responsibility and lack of unity. Identity politics rule the day, and people are universally more selfish, greedy, lazy, and entitled. Nobody wants to make sacrifices, but they want others to make sacrifices for them. Nobody wants to do anything for themselves, so they elect leaders who create program after unaffordable program to do it for them.
Also, I don’t think there has been such large percentage of people who openly WANT our nation to fall. Today America in and of itself is considered to be unworthy of existence due to its racist past is scary. Communism has returned, and we seem to be heading towards a civil war.
We also have huge corporations that are every bit as evil as the government, that are running the country into the ground. There isn’t true capitalism anymore; the lobbying is out of control, and when corporations gain monopolies, it’s not a “free market”, especially when they go to the government to ensure that their monopoly is legally binding. Not only that, it’s not a free market when we are forced to use the private sector’s services.
Honestly, at this point, we need a war, or something big and bad, that can unite us. It sounds awful, but we need something drastic that will slap this generation in the face and will help us reboot.
The sad thing is in the whole scheme of things American’s problems are pretty easy to fix if we had halfway competent leadership in Congress. It is not like the Late Roman empire which was faced with plagues, barbarian invasions on multiple fronts, a declining population, bankruptcy, etc…
America, honestly if it tightened its belt and reigned in entitlements could fix our debt problem within a generation if not sooner.
Wishful thinking, sir. You forgot about the need to reverse a completely debauched money system that is solely debt based; pay back every dollar and there will be no more dollars because dollars are debt instruments, not stores of value (or wealth). Look into fractional reserve banking and you’ll soon find out that debt is how the whole thing works.
Right after 9/11 I would have agreed with you. I am afraid at this point that NOTHING can ever again unite us. Maybe if Kim Jong Un nukes Portland or something we will be united–for a few days–but at this point we are divided to the point of near violence over something like people taking a knee at football games. Unless something happens to restore the notion that we are all Americans first and whatever else second then the country is doomed to come apart.
And I am NOT justifying taking the knee during the national anthem, just that we should be worried about EMP attacks, the country going bankrupt, wars with Russia, China, or North Korea, and such, and not whether a football team does any motherf***ing thing.
Climate change can also refer to the earth’s natural cycles. A lack of a couple of inches rainfall in one area can send a local economy on the edge over the side, leaving folks to starve. Likewise, a fractional degree’s difference and you have rain, instead of snow. This quickens the demise of glaciers. Bolivia, for one, is already in crisis:
I couldn’t agree more with this aspect of your post. The massacre in Vegas is illustrative, to a point; people want the government to step in and ensure their safety by passing a law that will magically make these situations disappear. YOU are primarily responsible for your own safety, you just choose to delegate primary responsibility to the government, which can only react with a hammer and not a scalpel, because that’s how governments inherently act. The fact that many things are even framed as “rights” anymore is troubling when all you are really talking about is delegating responsibility.