A US Empire Declining - Or Collapsing?

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 14 March 2011

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EW News Desk Team

Always on the look out for the latest news to monitor the state of the world economy.

EconomyWatch, News Desk Team

 

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14 March 2011

The US is the world’s largest economy and home to dynamic and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs ahead of our time. However, global competition is heating up in these areas, especially in China. In his thought-provoking article on Time, Fareed Zakaria asks is America still number one?

Fareed feels the policies and developments of the 1950s and ‘60s in education, infrastruscture and the like made during this time caused the US to boom. However underlying measures today don’t create the same confidence for the future.

“According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), our 15-year-olds rank 17th in the world in science and 25th in math. We rank 12th among developed countries in college graduation (down from No. 1 for decades).

We come in 79th in elementary-school enrollment. Our infrastructure is ranked 23rd in the world, well behind that of every other major advanced economy. American health numbers are stunning for a rich country: based on studies by the OECD and the World Health Organization, we're 27th in life expectancy, 18th in diabetes and first in obesity. Only a few decades ago, the U.S. stood tall in such rankings.

No more.”

He goes onto say many of the changes have taken place because of increased global competition from other countries wanting to overtake the US.

However to become the largest economy in the world, a country would need to have a per capita GDD twice that of the US.

China, for example would need to boost their average income to only one fourth of the US to develop an economy that surpasses the US.

“Sure, the political system seems to be engaged in big debates about the budget, pensions and the nation's future. But this is mostly a sideshow.”

“The debate between Democrats and Republicans on the budget excludes the largest drivers of the long-term deficit — Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare — to say nothing of the biggest nonentitlement costs, like the tax break for interest on mortgages.”

Read the full story on Time.

Fareed concludes describing the US economy gently ageing, however Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges on the other hand believes the US empire is on the brink of collapse in an interview with Raw Story.

"The when and how is very dangerous to predict because there's always some factor that blindsides you that you didn't expect," Pulitzer-winning journalist Chris Hedges said in an exclusive interview. "It doesn't look good. But exactly how it plays out and when it plays out, having covered disintegrating societies, it's impossible to tell."

He explained that he learned this lesson as events unfolded around him in the fall of 1989. Then, members of the opposition to the Soviet Empire told him that they predicted travel across the Berlin Wall separating East from West Germany would open within the year.

"Within a few hours, the wall didn't exist," he said.

Hedges said the signs of US collapse are plain to see and compared the country's course through Afghanistan to Soviet Russia's.

"We're losing [the war in Afghanistan] in the same way the Red Army lost it," he said. "It's exactly the same configuration where we sort of control the urban centers where 20 percent of the population lives. The rest of the country where 80 percent of the Afghans live is either in the hands of the Taliban or disputed."

Read the full story on Raw Story.

 


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