Is the USA coming to its end?

[-:Undertaker:-]

The Outstanding Public Debt of the United States as of 27 Jan 2010 at 10:15:41 PM GMT is: $12,312,807,994,267.34 - the estimated population of the United States is 307,731,975 so each citizens share of this debt is $40,011.47 - since the 28th September 2007 the national debt has continued to increase at an average of $3.88 billion per day.

http://brillig.com/debt_clock/

With the rise of the Peoples Republic of China, do you think the United States, just like the British Empire has had its day and that the American Empire will collapse economically as the British Empire did after World War II - it would be interesting to hear from some Americans on here on what they feel.

In my opinion I want to hope that the United States will continue to be the world player, but thats looking more and more unlikely as time passes by with its wars and its uncontrolled spending. The western world is in trouble, and when America hits the fan we really face a bleak outlook. The US has had many faults, its worst being the Suez Crisis in the 1950s and the way it treated Britain, and Iraq of course - but overall i'd much rather have the Anglo-American rule than a Chinese sphere of influence.

Do you think the United States is in irreversible decline and do you think that overall since 1945 it has had a generally positive impact on world affairs as the main global power?

[Lew]

Oh no.

Edited by MattGarner (Acting Assistant General Manager): Please do not post pointlessly.

[HotelUser]

No, because so many multinational corporations are based and came from the USA.

[RedStratocas]

of course the united states wont always be the supreme power, but i think our position won't change significantly any time soon. while we are facing economic as well as foreign policy woes, we've dealt with much worse and recovered.

i think people severely overestimate the supposed rise of china. china's poverty is much larger than people think, their population will decline, their human rights are less than tolerable (while this is debatable, i believe the freer the nation, the more prosperous it may be), and they are in severe debt themselves. a significant amount of their employment depends on other nations. they would need far far more independent job growth in order to be the superpower that the united states is/once was, but thats not really going anywhere from what we can see now.

[Ardemax]

no, and i don't exactly know why you got the idea it would come to an end

our debt is big, doesn't mean we're coming to an end

america's is bigger because there's more people in it

it will settle out in a few years and everyone will be hunkey dorey

[FlyingJesus]

of course the united states wont always be the supreme power, but i think our position won't change significantly any time soon. while we are facing economic as well as foreign policy woes, we've dealt with much worse and recovered.

I agree entirely with this part, it's foolish to think that one nation can keep supremacy forever unless they somehow attain (and maintain) total global dominance, but I don't think it's America's time to fall by a long shot just yet

i think people severely overestimate the supposed rise of china. china's poverty is much larger than people think, their population will decline, their human rights are less than tolerable (while this is debatable, i believe the freer the nation, the more prosperous it may be), and they are in severe debt themselves. a significant amount of their employment depends on other nations. they would need far far more independent job growth in order to be the superpower that the united states is/once was, but thats not really going anywhere from what we can see now.

I agree here with your conclusion (in that I don't believe China to be anywhere near ready for a true takeover - they had an attempt at a big revolution a few years back that fizzled out because they simply couldn't afford for it to spread through the whole country) but I'd argue against you on the idea of "the freer the nation, the more prosperous it may be". Prosperous in terms of average wealth perhaps, but human rights aside if a country is paying little or nothing ie: through slavery or forced labour for pittance, then production goes on without such an outflow. The most historically prosperous nations - Egypt, Rome, Persia, Greece, etc - have all made huge use of slaves and the extortion of peasantry. It's not a nice way of doing things but without one or both of these things no nation would ever have grown up properly.

[Misawa]

China will never become the world's "supreme power" because of how messed up the country is, politically, financially and economically. China has such poverty that the Japanese pull them across the border and basically enslave them.

[DrLacero]

No, because America will never pay off their debt, so it's irrelevant.

[dbgtz]

Na America will be number 1 until world war 3 where russia or china lead.

[ifuseekamy]

I thought the EU was the new world superpower :S well it probably will be if it isn't.