IMO: The US isn't "bankrupt". It remains a very wealthy, successful & powerful country. It is an "empire" although not an empire in precisely the same way as earlier empires.
What the US also
isn't is: "
EXCEPTIONAL"!
There was a time when the US
was exceptional - a country with the social, economic & political advantages of a rationally conceived constitution & a unimaginably vast hinterland of untapped resources to be exploited. These factors combined with an influx of enterprising, adventurous immigrants led to a rapid expansion of population, wealth & power.
However, during the same period, the great European powers also grew exponentially in population, wealth & power & gradually adopted more responsive, democratic forms of government. Not having huge land masses to explore & exploit, the European powers looked to colonial expansion to increase their access to resources. Conflict between competing interests led to the conflagration of the First World War & then the Second World War which both represented opportunities for the US to gain ground on the European countries.
After the Second World War, the US emerged as the dominant world power, challenged only by the (somewhat hollow) military & technological power of the Soviet Union. The 50 years following the end of the war were the United States period of hegemony. But, the US was no longer "
exceptional" compared to Europe in terms of political & social organization, just
more powerful due to historical & geographical circumstances.
Those historical & geographical circumstances have changed over the last couple of decades, ironically, partly due to technical innovations pioneered in the US. The problems facing the US & ALL the western countries are significant & structural. The global economy that has emerged no longer favours the US (or Europe) in the same way that it used to. The very rich in the US (& elsewhere) are able to thrive & prosper in this new global economy, the working & middle-classes, less so, as they are now competing in a global market-place. There are also fundamental demographic shifts taking place in all the Western countries (& Japan) – slightly less-so in the US, that are having profound & unavoidable consequences on the economies of those countries.
Looking at the US today it seems to me that its own consciousness of "exceptionalism" is now manifested through a sense of entitlement & hubris. US politicians continue to waffle on about American "exceptionalism" without facing up to the reality that there is no longer anything inherently exceptional about the US. What is most noticeable to me, is that unlike Canada & most European countries, the US seems to be lacking any kind of popular
consensus. The political system is paralyzed by two diametrically opposed, competing philosophies & seems incapable of moving forward in a constructive way. The Tea Party belief that returning to the days of smaller government & low taxes will somehow return the US to greatness is nonsense. Just lowering tax rates on the wealthiest isn’t going to achieve anything except lower the general standard of living & increase the growing gap between the rich & non-rich. And what is needed is not “small government”, it’s GOOD government.
The US needs a national sales tax, higher marginal income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, lower corporate & payroll taxes, a re-assessment of unsustainable “entitlement” programs, a dramatic (but gradual) decrease in military spending, a more efficient single-payer health-care system, a targeted increase in spending on education, technology & infrastructure – things that will make the US able to compete globally in a changing world.
I still believe that if the US can come together with some renewed sense of common purpose it will flourish in the future. It will never attain the same kind of hegemony it enjoyed in the last 50 years, however. This is not a bad thing – it means that hundreds & hundreds of millions of people in other parts of the world will be achieving new levels of prosperity & human dignity.
Once, Japan was a worrisome competitor of the United State in the trade markets. Now they are an afterthought after being overtaken by China. Who will be the next to come from behind China and be the largest United States competitor?
Yes! You are right! Bear in mind that China is not without its own problems. These will become more apparent with time & check its own expansion in ways that are hard to anticipate now.
