Thursday 20 May 2010

American Declinism

http://rationaloptimist.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/american-declinism/


When I goggled American Declinism I found a blog entitled The Rational Optimist. I found this page particularly interesting because of the optimistic view it took on the decline of America. The writer declares “Declinism” as a favourite theme for pessimists. It looks in depth at Americas debt and their GDP. It debates that despite the fact that Americas military budget is equal to all other nations combined, it is only 5% of the nations GDP. However, it does consider that with the GDP being around $14 trillion, the spending the government is obligated to do comes to around $50 trillion at the very least. This makes the idea that America can still live in luxury with this debt unbelievable.

The piece is summed up in an interesting way.

“as long as the US still remains fantastically productive, with the energies and creativity of its people continuing to churn out a cornucopia of saleable things, and with technological advancement continuing to enhance our output even more, we will not starve. Not only will we go on enjoying a high standard of living, it will likely get even better.”

It seems as though the writer does not see it important for America to be the top superpower, but just for it to be able to provide an acceptable living standard for its citizens and produce enough products for the country to get by comfortably. I find this to be an interesting view as it shows that some Americans do not feel that it is important to them that America is the top superpower.

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