3 ms·

This argument is invalid because America is not a real 1st world country. It's only rich due to historical legacy of the dollar after WW2.

User23 5y ago
America is rich for many more reasons than Bretton Woods. For most of the 20th century it had by far the greatest real productive and manufacturing base of any country in the world. The USA has been visibly declining for about 45 years sure, and is no longer the world leader in manufacturing, but it still has a huge and well-diversified economy. Since dollars represent, among other things, claims on a share of that economic output, demand for them is quite real and not just an historical artifact. And since no other country with a huge diversified economy is willing to run external deficits large enough to meet foreign demand for reserves, the dollar is pretty much the only good choice. There just isn’t enough gold to clear trade in a $80+ trillion global economy.
- akimball 5y ago
  Price fixes that
- nine_zeros 5y ago
  > For most of the 20th century it had by far the greatest real productive and manufacturing base of any country in the world. The USA has been visibly declining for about 45 years sure, and is no longer the world leader in manufacturing, but it still has a huge and well-diversified economy. Since dollars represent, among other things, claims on a share of that economic output, demand for them is quite real and not just an historical artifact. This is merely viewing the same thing from a US-centric perspective. From a rest of the world perspective, the largest competitors in EU were destroyed in WW2 (deservedly so imo), China was nowhere and India was impeded first by British colonization and then by Bretton Woods which only focused on EU nations. America is ahead but make no mistake that the gap is large only because WW2 destroyed other nations and Bretton Woods system was the first step in prevention of other nations from building up rapidly.
rocknor 5y ago
Do you even know what 1/2/3 world means?

User23 5y ago

America is rich for many more reasons than Bretton Woods. For most of the 20th century it had by far the greatest real productive and manufacturing base of any country in the world. The USA has been visibly declining for about 45 years sure, and is no longer the world leader in manufacturing, but it still has a huge and well-diversified economy. Since dollars represent, among other things, claims on a share of that economic output, demand for them is quite real and not just an historical artifact. And since no other country with a huge diversified economy is willing to run external deficits large enough to meet foreign demand for reserves, the dollar is pretty much the only good choice. There just isn’t enough gold to clear trade in a $80+ trillion global economy.

akimball 5y ago
Price fixes that
nine_zeros 5y ago
> For most of the 20th century it had by far the greatest real productive and manufacturing base of any country in the world. The USA has been visibly declining for about 45 years sure, and is no longer the world leader in manufacturing, but it still has a huge and well-diversified economy. Since dollars represent, among other things, claims on a share of that economic output, demand for them is quite real and not just an historical artifact. This is merely viewing the same thing from a US-centric perspective. From a rest of the world perspective, the largest competitors in EU were destroyed in WW2 (deservedly so imo), China was nowhere and India was impeded first by British colonization and then by Bretton Woods which only focused on EU nations. America is ahead but make no mistake that the gap is large only because WW2 destroyed other nations and Bretton Woods system was the first step in prevention of other nations from building up rapidly.

rocknor 5y ago

Do you even know what 1/2/3 world means?