American Declinism

http://www.american.com/archive/2007/august-0807/the-decline-and-fall-of-declinism

This article is on the decline of America and tells us of the figures of its economy that America has at the moment, saying it has an economy of $13.13 trillion dollars, which is 20% of the global output. The article is trying to defend the idea that America is in decline. It's trying to give examples of how America is still coping and not in decline, after starting off outlining the history of declinism, for example the Imperial Overstretch of the country and that Hurricane Katrina exposed a weak country.

The article also focuses on Americanisation and Globalisation of products around the world. The author emphasises that it is impossible for America to be in such steep decline as everyone says it is when globalisation is doing so well. He gives figures of how many stores have been Americanised around the world, such as he says there are 30,000 McDonald's restaurants not in America, and that 70% of Coca-Cola drinkers aren't from North America. This shows that America is still doing well, and is spreading its Soft Power throughout the world, despite it being in decline. Therefore its gathering all this money from other countries, which contributes to stopping America from declining.