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

lemonde.fr

81–90 of 212 posts

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

#81
post #4

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

America is, and always has been, an isolationist nation - behaving like an island nation even though it's not an island (although it might as well be, given it has only two neighbors of little consequence).

It was dragged into the first world war (despite strong public aversion) because J.P. Morgan Jr started lending money to Britain and France to buy American steel, thus setting in motion a cycle of investment and production protection that eventually required boots on the ground.

It was dragged into the second world war by Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor (and Germany's subsequent declaration of war, as it was obligated to do under its treaty with Japan).

It protected Europe and SE Asia in the post-war years in order to contain communism, which it feared more than anything else. Once that threat subsided, there wasn't much reason for it to continue with its overseas footprint other than inertia and protecting important trade routes.

Gulf Wars I was to protect oil prices (and because they already had the equipment for war), and Gulf Wars II was to be seen to be doing something about 9/11.

Now that Trump is in power, America is performing its "great reset" (which was going to come eventually), where it becomes isolationist again, sticking to the Americas (reinvigorating the Monroe Doctrine), and leaving everyone else to their own devices.

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

#82
post #4

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

The "world", implicit in your comment, is the liberal world order. This world order worked for America (ie Americans) until it became apparent that it did not, at least in a political and cultural sense (in a material sense it is of course still working perhaps even too well). The greatest champion of this world order, the EU bureaucratic class, views Americans' play for their sovereignty with bewilderment and casts it as renouncing its leadership in the world, yet leadership is not just blindly following a path to ruin but instead forging ahead down new and promising paths. In this sense the US is indeed still "leading" and it is the EU that stands firm in its intransigence and refuses to follow the leader. Yet it need not be this way and the EU very well could follow the US away from the excesses of hegemonic liberalism. There are signs of change in the air. This is politically interesting and the eventual outcome is not at all clear.

On the other hand, the emergence of China, India, and to a lesser extent Russia (as a puppet of the Chinese) upon the world stage as independent actors, out of the shadows of Western domination, is another way in which the US is "losing control" but this is much less politically interesting in the sense that it was an inevitable and expected outcome. There is nothing the US has done, is doing or could do that would diminish non-Western ambition and agitation for power.

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

#83
post #6
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.

They'll only realize what they lost, when they lost it. When their influence all over the world crumbles away, because of disrespectful treatment of other nations, and negligence in maintaining good relations. The bad awakening comes, when most of the good relations are gone, and the people feel consequences domestically.

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

#84
Before WWII America was content with it's own company and business. Then we found ourselves holding the big stick and everybody looking to us to solve their problems.

If we go back to being peers, so what? Rich people who've capitalized on the favored position will cry and complain (and spend billions trying to keep control) but the world will go on.

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

#85

"The Iraq War, launched in 2003 – resulting in over 100,000 deaths" Isn't this an extreme low-ball estimate?

Yes, it is a very low-ball estimate. The more accurate estimate is that Iraq lost 5% of its population, and in many areas, Iraq continues to lose babies born with birth defects due to the use of depleted uranium.

https://psr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/body-count.pdf

Note that this report was filed in 2010, and the fatalities have continued since then.

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

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those who know where this will lead are unwilling to speak up and the rest follow. They did speak up. And they lost the popular vote. Democracy is only as good as its voters. A country is only as good as its people. Replace good with productive/sane/not corrupt, etc.

If you do not get votes, it’s not the voters who failed, it is you. If politicians got that through their heads, and started trying to convince voters on their own merit, instead of simply trash-talking their opponents and telling people they voted “wrong”, they would start to get things done again, and we could actually solve real problems.

> started trying to convince voters on their own merit

I'm not sure this is true anymore given the splitting of media and news sources. When everyone watched the same 3 news programs it was easier to speak to those people. It is very hard to penetrate the "other sides" messaging platforms.

> instead of simply trash-talking their opponents

This was the President's entire election platform (twice).

> we could actually solve real problems

If voters wanted the solve real problems, they would vote for people who present solutions to real problems. Instead, we vote for people who provide easy scapegoats and fake solutions, which ends up making things worse. Trump has the slimmest policy stance of any President ever elected.

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

#88

There's a very real chance the USA will get lucky and find a new means of economic domination through its AI companies and the looming space build-out. Its self-destructiveness right now, flouting longstanding alliances and truckling to its enemies, would ruin it in any other moment in its history. But in these unusual circumstances, it might not matter.

Unlikely.

Silicon Valley is great for innovating new "intellectual property," but they don't manufacture any real products any more.

China has entire cities which not only can develop IP, but they have the entire ecosystem collocated.

Catching up with them will be expensive and will need focus. Focus is not something the current president seems to excel in.

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

#89
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> want the US to pay for and be responsible for policing the world Not really convinced that it's that way round, that Europe actually wants much of this "policing" to be done at all rather than being dragged into it. Until Ukraine, which is the exact bit of world policing that Republicans no longer recognize as crime.

You're doing all of it right there. You, a European, want to tell the US public how their resources are to be used, and when they don't agree with you then you act morally superior about it.

It's my freedom of speech to be morally superior about it.

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

#90
post #54

Lol, the US deficits are what sustains the production of demand stricken surplus economies. Everything that has happened is the ultimate result of surplus countries doubling down on mercantalist investment than growing internal consumption. If a rebalancing were to occur, it is the surplus countries hit with mass unemployment that will hurt much more than deficit countries that can move production back at a much quic…

It's a trade imbalance. They send stuff out, they get nothing in. They could just continue to produce the stuff, then just set it on fire. No mass unemployment. Problem solved, no? It seems easier to do than to build an industrial base again.

Yeah, try building a product nobody wants and let's see how long you stay solvent... Brush up on macroeconomics first maybe
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