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The American Empire? Yes, it will decline, but the OP did a poor job of explaining why. American corporations won't dominate the world's economic landscape fore

The American Empire? Yes, it will decline, but the OP did a poor job of explaining why. American corporations won't dominate the world's economic landscape forever. As a country, we'll be fine. We won't really notice the change, because our standard of living will still be improving as this occurs.

jordanb 17y ago
One thing I like to observe is that even with the evaporation of the Empire, Britain remains a very wealthy country with a high standard of living. In fact, their standard of living is considerably higher now than it was at the height of the Empire in the 1950s.
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  Crime rates are considerably higher too though.
- arethuza 17y ago
  I think the "height" of the Empire was definitely before WW1 - by 1950 Britain was in a pretty bad way.
  - pw0ncakes 17y ago
    The discrepancy in wealth between Western and Eastern Europe is due largely to the Marshall Plan (Eastern bloc states couldn't accept the aid). Without it, Britain would have struggled to rebuild its economy (and Britain was very poor in the '50s). So the "American Era" effectively began with the conclusion of World War 2. World War 1 was the sign that imperialism might not be such a good idea, since it led to an effectively pointless war, but it didn't change the relative levels of power. World War 2 occurred because certain societies didn't learn this lesson and became even more monstrous than the old imperial powers. After it, imperialism essentially died in Europe, but was unfortunately reborn in the US corporate complex.
arethuza 17y ago
I think you make a very important point there - there may not be that much correlation between the standard of living of the average person and the "power" of the country in global economic and military terms.
- pw0ncakes 17y ago
  At some point, they begin to trade off against one another. A free state can't easily hold as an empire, because the people have to be coerced into putting the empire's interests above their own. We're able to be an empire while remaining nominally democratic because corporations-- authoritarian economic institutions-- hold most of the actual power... and it's the corporations that do the dirtiest of the dirty work, not the government.

jordanb 17y ago

One thing I like to observe is that even with the evaporation of the Empire, Britain remains a very wealthy country with a high standard of living. In fact, their standard of living is considerably higher now than it was at the height of the Empire in the 1950s.

nopassrecover 17y ago
Crime rates are considerably higher too though.
arethuza 17y ago
I think the "height" of the Empire was definitely before WW1 - by 1950 Britain was in a pretty bad way.
- pw0ncakes 17y ago
  The discrepancy in wealth between Western and Eastern Europe is due largely to the Marshall Plan (Eastern bloc states couldn't accept the aid). Without it, Britain would have struggled to rebuild its economy (and Britain was very poor in the '50s). So the "American Era" effectively began with the conclusion of World War 2. World War 1 was the sign that imperialism might not be such a good idea, since it led to an effectively pointless war, but it didn't change the relative levels of power. World War 2 occurred because certain societies didn't learn this lesson and became even more monstrous than the old imperial powers. After it, imperialism essentially died in Europe, but was unfortunately reborn in the US corporate complex.

arethuza 17y ago

I think you make a very important point there - there may not be that much correlation between the standard of living of the average person and the "power" of the country in global economic and military terms.

pw0ncakes 17y ago
At some point, they begin to trade off against one another. A free state can't easily hold as an empire, because the people have to be coerced into putting the empire's interests above their own. We're able to be an empire while remaining nominally democratic because corporations-- authoritarian economic institutions-- hold most of the actual power... and it's the corporations that do the dirtiest of the dirty work, not the government.