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America has the foreign policy and military structure of an imperial power, but lacks a direct mechanism to collect the tribute that historically supported empi
by gamble 16y ago
America has the foreign policy and military structure of an imperial power, but lacks a direct mechanism to collect the tribute that historically supported empires. Instead, the system depends on the US possessing relative economic advantage in a free-trade system to create prosperity which can then be taxed, underwriting the enormous military budget. That system has been broken since the late 60s; globalization and radical antitax conservatism eliminated the financial foundation required to maintain such a vast military. In the end, a state that can't pay for its military ceases to have the ability to act as a hegemon.
- sfgary1 16y agoI generally agree with you that there is no direct evidence of "tribute collection." However, if you look at the most recent example of Iraq, we could make the case that the U.S. has placed permanently placed its military in a country with a lot of oil reserves and could assure itself of cheap plentiful supply from not only Iraq but from the region. Putting my conspiracy theory hat on I would say that the Iraq war was not about WMDs but using it as a excuse to go after the oil reserves.