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Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

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Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#11

Post by squidbeak »

pfdietz wrote: post #6
mrweasel wrote: post #4

Largely the US isn't losing control, it's giving it up willingly. For what reason, no one knows yet.

It's because it's not worth the expense. Vanity is a hell of a drug, but it has its limits.

A large part of the lifestyle Americans enjoy is owed to its control of the world.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#12

Post by mattmaroon »

pfdietz wrote: post #6
mrweasel wrote: post #4

Largely the US isn't losing control, it's giving it up willingly. For what reason, no one knows yet.

It's because it's not worth the expense. Vanity is a hell of a drug, but it has its limits.

It’s not that it’s not worth the expense, it’s that we’re unable to continue funding global peace and prosperity ourselves. And we shouldn’t have to.

I don’t agree with Trump about much but he’s correct that the other liberal democracies have been more than happy to have us foot the bill for keeping the wolves at bay while looking down on us for doing it.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#13

Post by fidotron »

mrweasel wrote: post #4

Largely the US isn't losing control, it's giving it up willingly. For what reason, no one knows yet.

The Europeans want it both ways: they want the US to pay for and be responsible for policing the world, but to do it the way the Europeans want with them free to criticize the US and act morally superior the whole time. This act has become utterly tiresome.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#16

Post by tmountain »

mrweasel wrote: post #4

Largely the US isn't losing control, it's giving it up willingly. For what reason, no one knows yet.

The America First agenda is predicated by isolationism. You have a demagogue with whom nobody is willing to say "no" and an army of self serving sycophants lined up to try and win favors. The political messaging is all built around zero sum language and arguments, and toughness is demonstrated by punitive measures taken against any allies deemed "weaker" than the U.S. (basically everyone). Those who know where this will lead are unwilling to speak up and the rest follow. Everyone involved seems to be in it for short-term transactional benefits, and nobody seems to acknowledge or care about what the long term outcomes will be for the country.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#17

Post by metalman »

America never had control. What it did have was the natural, organic attention of a very large portion of the world population, just after the end of WW2. Anericans were physicaly bigger, stronger, better educated, cool and casual about all the gadgets,tools,and toys they tossed around, and the media evidence of the goings on in the US, painted a come on over and join the fun immage that many fought to get any piece they could. Thats, over.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#18

Post by next_xibalba »

mrweasel wrote: post #4

Largely the US isn't losing control, it's giving it up willingly. For what reason, no one knows yet.

You cannot separate monstrously expensive calamities like Vietnam or Iraq from the military-industry complex that is the foundation for the U.S.’s role as the defender of the west. So many thousands of lives lost or ruined, trillions spent. To say nothing of the millions of foreign civilians killed and maimed. The American people are sick to death of it. Some politicians smartly harnessed that sentiment.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#19

Post by jnmandal »

Without entering (and winning) some kind of major conflict, this was always going to happen.

Two things are important to think about.

1. Power should be measured in relative terms not absolute. (For a good treatise on this, read Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers). The US would have to be keeping up with China, India, and rest of world to maintain its previous pole position.

2. Great nations/empires generally become so at least partially through population growth. This can be organic or engineered (ie: continuously conquering more and more territory) but rising dominance almost never coincides with demographic stagnation, which the US is experiencing. This population plateau has been accurately predicted by the US Census for my entire lifetime.

Also nothing about this decline is unusual or unexpected. This is the course of empire, which is not a new concept.

Re: Thomas Piketty: 'The reality is the US is losing control of the world'

#20

Post by simonsarris »

akka47 wrote: post #15

Thank god. I don't understand how we, as in humanity, allow a single country to be "world police". Seriously, no one asked for it.

Diplomacy before the "world police" era involved a lot more war than you might be willing to stomach.
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