US global dominance 'set to wane'

Originally posted by Merk
Ah yes, the old myth that a nation could support itself ientirely and still be well off.

Apparently that was the state of the world before the World Bank and the IMF gangstered western homogenization on much of the developing world and in the process transformed independent self sufficient nations with diverse internal markets into vassal states producing one or two staple crops/products now totally dependent on their western masters.

And no Wajoma, the people of these nations had little choice in the "democracies" foisted on them by a bunch of tin pot dictators aided and abetted by the might of corporate sam. (uncle sam's inbred cousin-real mean when his belly's full of corn mash)

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
You mean Japan is taking over the car market right?

Yes, mostly japanese, but we shouldn't forget some other asian car manufacturers.
While US has their car market in decline, the Asian car market prosper.

Originally posted by kmax87
Apparently that was the state of the world before the World Bank and the IMF gangstered western homogenization on much of the developing world and in the process transformed independent self sufficient nations with diverse internal markets into vassal states producing one or two staple crops/products now totally dependent on their western masters.

And no W ...[text shortened]... t of corporate sam. (uncle sam's inbred cousin-real mean when his belly's full of corn mash)

Mutual dependance is required to prevent war.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
Mutual dependance is required to prevent war.

That seems to be the rationale behind much of the positive spin applied to the process of globalization, but whether you then call regional conflict nothing more than mere police action against undesirable anti-social dissidents, the truth of that assumption seems harder to discern given the concentration of media and the strict control of mainstream information dissemination these days, so while it may be true that increased national interdependence might indeed lead to a lowered incidence of large scale regional conflict, the incidence of small scale suppression of local sovereignty may easily increase without anyone ever being able to bring any form of relatively unbiased or objective assessment or reporting as to what is actually going on and we end up with the world that we largely currently live in, where large losses of life can occur under the auspices of first world influence and trading structures and somehow remain silent and powerless to avert the destruction of life and limb.

Originally posted by Seitse
US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7741049.stm

So, what do you think about the report?

economic: we go down, you all go down, too.

military: doubt it. we've only got major borders with mexico and canada. and see below re military power.

political: what dominance do we have now? like herding cats!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Military

The U.S. military is composed of almost three million personnel, of which approximately half are reserve personnel. The U.S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. The U.S. military draws its manpower from a large pool of volunteers and as such conscription is neither needed nor desirable as it maintains a purely professional military force. The U.S. military receives $711 billion per year in funding,[6] constituting approximately 50% of military expenditure in the world. The U.S. military possesses advanced and powerful military equipment giving it huge military capabilities and power projection. Thus, it is considered to be by far the most powerful and most advanced military in the world, giving the United States enormous hard power and is a major factor towards the superpower status of the United States.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops

Rank Flag State Active Service Personnel Reserve Force Paramilitary Total Active troops per thousand citizens
1 People's Republic of China** 2,255,000[1] 800,000[1] 3,969,000[1] 7,024,000 1.71
2 United States** 1,473,900[2] 1,458,500[2] 453,000[2] 3,385,400 4.76
3 India** 1,325,000[3] 1,155,000[3] 1,293,300[3] 3,773,300 1.20
4 Russia** 1,037,000[4] 2,400,000[5] 359,100[6] 3,796,100 7.24
5 North Korea** 1,106,000[7] 4,700,000[7] 189,000[7] 5,995,000 49.03
6 South Korea 687,000[8] 4,500,000[8] 22,000[8] 5,209,000 14.20
7 Pakistan** 619,000[9] 528,000[9] 302,000[9] 1,449,000 3.72
8 Iran 545,000[10] 350,000[11] 11,390,000[12] 12,285,000 11.74
9 Turkey 514,850[13] 380,000[14] 148,700[15] 1,043,550 7.03
10 Vietnam 484,000[16] 4,000,000[16] 5,080,000[16] 9,564,000 5.79