[Info-vax] [OT] The US is no longer a superpower, was: Re: Where is EISNER:: and who funds it?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-12-27, alanfe... at gmail.com <alanfeldman48 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Also, the rest of the world didn't put men on the moon. The rest of the world doesn't have the primary currency of the world. The rest of the world doesn't define and set the base units of the metric or SI system, AFAIK. Yes, there's that kg mass in Paris, but that's finally been replaced with a better standard. Maybe other countries are involved. I don't know for sure. The rest of the world doesn't have several elements named after American entities: Americium, Berkelium, Californium, Tennessine, Lawrencium (a lab in California). Can any other country beat that? The U.S. used to be the leader in particle physics. Well, not so much anymore. Bummer. 
>

I wasn't going to respond to this, but sod it, it's time you, and other
Americans who feel like you, learn some home truths about your country
because if enough of you start thinking about these things, you might
end up doing something about it before it's too late for you.

I _really_ wish what I am about to say below wasn't true, because the
world would be far better off if the US were still a viable superpower.

However, the US is no longer a superpower in any meaningful sense,
and you have only yourselves to blame.

This is because you have willingly outsourced your manufacturing base
to China and therefore cannot call upon it in times of conflict with
China (or with their allies).

This means you are no longer masters of your own destiny (which is what
being a superpower is all about) and you now depend on the goodwill of
your opponents to keep you supplied with the goods and products you have
become used to and which you need for your country to survive.

At some point in the future, China will become powerful enough to threaten
to cut off the supply of some products to you unless you do what they say
and at that point it will be a viable threat because China will by then be
powerful enough to survive that move, especially given your current lack
of backbone as a country (see below).

You also no longer make careers in science and technology a desirable goal
for your citizens. China understands that building a base of citizens in
this area will lead to long-term success for them. Your country has lost
sight of this and you are losing your lead to China as a result, especially
when combined with your current lack of manufacturing base.

As a country, you no longer have a real backbone when facing an equal
opponent so you have also lost the willingness to fight a real war
because of all the casualties that would occur. All China has to do
is to sink a couple of aircraft carriers with no survivors and that
loss of life means that today's America would be calling for peace
(on China's terms).

IOW, you are building a nation of Neville Chamberlain clones, not
a nation of Winston Churchill clones. That will be your undoing.
For all the faults of the era (and there were many) at least the
US citizens of the 1950s and the following decades understood what was
needed to stand up to the Soviet Union. You as a country no longer
understand that and no longer have the backbone for that when it comes
to China.

You are building massive debt and writing IOUs that you cannot honour.
When your financial circumstances change, that debt will also be your
undoing.

You are today where Britain once was - a once great industrial power that
became a vassal state of the US. You in turn are well on the way to becoming
a vassal state of China because you will have lost the ability to go it
alone when it comes to science, technology, and manufacturing.

At the rate you are going, you will at some point in the future have your
own version of the Suez Canal crisis (with the same outcome) and everyone
will know that the US is no longer a superpower. At that point, things
will cascade very quickly and badly for you.

When I look at the US as it exists today, I see the start of the Fall of
the Roman Empire and I _really_ wish that was not true. :-(

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.