> The US is not doing well because of some geographic determinism Correct. Why the US is doing well (for some value of well), is not what I was referring to.

> The US is not doing well because of some geographic determinism Correct. Why the US is doing well (for some value of well), is not what I was referring to. The issue under discussion was the breakdown of globalism, and the effect on the US. The US navies will stop patrolling international waters to protect all popular shipping lanes, over the next decade. The US presence in the oceans will be reduced, drastically. There's a couple reasons for this. The US just doesn't care enough to guard the oil sea thoroughfares anymore, which covers half the globe's oceans. Second, the demographics of most countries has created an age bubble that will cause consumerism to drop off a cliff, making the other half of the world's oceans (around southeast asian countries) less attractive to patrol. Third, the Navy continues to decommission ships faster than it builds them. If you work for a retail-based business/corp, inflation is only part of the spending decline.