The Rise and Fall of America

It's all pretty simple, really.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Britain was the world's greatest power, with vast imperial resources, sound money, and great self-confidence. Germany and France were not far behind. Then, in 1914, Europe went to war.

Meanwhile, the United States sat protected by two oceans, and had a conservative outlook and was disposed to look on business favorably. The American people were known for their independence and hardworking habits. Except for the last bit, it mostly sat out World War I.

Later we had the Great Depression, which affected the entire world.

Then, Europe went to war again. This time, the U.S. did not sit it out, but was nevertheless shielded from the destruction and impoverishment that the formerly leading powers endured, not to mention that the number of Americans killed was orders of magnitude lower for America than for many of the other belligerents.

We were the last man standing.

Sometime after World war II, the US dollar became the world's reserve currency. Due to worldwide destruction as well as the communist takeover of many countries, which necessarily makes countries poorer, The U.S. was the industrial powerhouse of the world.

That's when we started to become complacent. We thought we were special, and that our power and wealth would continue forever. We thought that the sexual revolution and mass immigration couldn't even put a dent in our society because, well, because we were America.

Yet we became even wealthier. Because of the dollar's status as reserve currency for the world, we were able to finance our wealth by issuing lots of debt. Our wealth was an illusion; in reality we were borrowing money to pay for our goodies. Meanwhile, the rest of the world had recovered, and other formerly poor countries - the "Third World" - had started to advance.

But, we were not special. American greatness owed itself to three things: geography with its protection against invasion - and it didn't hurt to have two weak neighbors; the American people, comprised mainly of descendants of Europeans; and a system of limited government, rule of law, and capitalism. All of these advantages are now either gone or have been greatly diminished. The majority American people are on the decline, due to mass immigration of non-European peoples and the proliferation of their descendants. This has also had its effects on the geographic advantage, for while this still prevents armies and navies from reaching us, it hasn't prevented scores of millions of people from coming to live here. The government has become much larger, takes an increasing share of the economy, has made many people dependent upon it, and has become very much anti-business and pro-redistribution.

Now we owe more money than we can ever possibly repay. Living standards are on the decline, because our manufacturing base has been hollowed out, and we can no longer borrow more money to keep up. There's no consensus that we must stop the madness of big government and vast debt, because complacency, easy living, and immigration have created a population that depends on the government and wants to see it expand, not diminish.

The only thing left is to inflate, or hyperinflate, our way out of debt, which will likely destroy the economy. But even should we see our way out of that, the fundamental problems will remain, and our advantages will still be gone.

The only thing left is decline.