Comments on: America’s Future: Managing Imperial Decline http://www.ustvmedia.org/america-republic-or-empire/2006/11/23/americas-future-managing-imperial-decline/ Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:39:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0 by: Realpolitesse http://www.ustvmedia.org/america-republic-or-empire/2006/11/23/americas-future-managing-imperial-decline/#comment-9580 Sat, 02 Dec 2006 18:51:29 +0000 http://www.ustvmedia.org/america-republic-or-empire/2006/11/23/americas-future-managing-imperial-decline/#comment-9580 We Americans shouldn't feel too morally righteous in our anger toward Bush for exposing the myth of American power and wrecking the empire. What is the empire? Our prosperity is built on the exploitation of other nations, especially third-world nations. Our houses are cluttered with goods made in Asian sweatshops. Our economy runs on oil pumped by poor workers in Africa, the Middle East, and South America. A redistribution of wealth across this wide, overpopulated world would only be fair, right? Personally, I might be able to stomach living in a commune with 10 or 20 like-minded people, but I imagine socialism as a large-scale government institution would be unbearable. So I enjoy capitalism. Perhaps in a capitalist system, someone is always top dog, both on a local scale (your boss) and a worldwide scale (the USA). There are far too many people in this world for everyone to be wealthy. So if a nation is going to be top dog, it might as well be us, right? I will be sad to see our prosperity decline, but I will try to bear in mind the concept of fairness and refrain from bitching about it. We Americans shouldn’t feel too morally righteous in our anger toward Bush for exposing the myth of American power and wrecking the empire. What is the empire? Our prosperity is built on the exploitation of other nations, especially third-world nations. Our houses are cluttered with goods made in Asian sweatshops. Our economy runs on oil pumped by poor workers in Africa, the Middle East, and South America. A redistribution of wealth across this wide, overpopulated world would only be fair, right?

Personally, I might be able to stomach living in a commune with 10 or 20 like-minded people, but I imagine socialism as a large-scale government institution would be unbearable. So I enjoy capitalism. Perhaps in a capitalist system, someone is always top dog, both on a local scale (your boss) and a worldwide scale (the USA). There are far too many people in this world for everyone to be wealthy. So if a nation is going to be top dog, it might as well be us, right? I will be sad to see our prosperity decline, but I will try to bear in mind the concept of fairness and refrain from bitching about it.

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