Would the world be a better place if something catastrophic happened to the American economy which resulted in the U.S. no longer being a superpower?

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Well?

― Bela Lugosi's Dad, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

no, somebody else would come along to fuck things up.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

do historians now think the "dark ages" were not so bad?

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

ie: if we go y'all go with us. global economy, innit.

― g--ff (gcannon), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

America would rise again because our flag is still better than everyone elses. 50 stars, suck on that.

― na (Nick A.), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this may actually happen before too long, what with the sheer amount of hubris the US has been displaying lately. Wait and see.

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:14 (twenty-one years ago)

haha - "lately"

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't really imagine something so "catastrophic" as to destroy the American economy, aside from like full-on nuclear war.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Sadly, G--ff is right. It's all connected.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, to reframe the question, what if the U.S. went into decline, the EU got its shit together, Japan picked up and China steamed on? Would the increased balance at the expense of the U.S. economy be good for the world?

― Bela Lugosi's Dad, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

haha - "the EU got its shit together"

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

nineteenth century's long gone dog - give up the dream, europe ain't going nowhere

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Something catastrophic like what? I see where you're going, "America bad" and all that, but I am curious what kind of catastropohe you're imagining. Weather? Nuclear war? The stock market crashing won't do it, you know.

(xxxxpost, hstencil OTM)

― Harold Media (kenan), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe if China put some lightning bolts on its flag. Or one of those drag-racing monsters.

― na (Nick A.), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

well, that's a different question: decline is much different than catastrophic disaster. In which case, the US would just be like the EU (sorry guys, but you'll never get your shit together), with India and China (sorry, no Japan) the dominant powers. A lot of economists think that's gonna happen within 20 years anyway.

xpost dammit blount!

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

So America's going to remain top dog till the end of time? I'm sure that's what the Romans thought.

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

no, dummy, India and China are running the show in (conservative estimate) 20 years, tops.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

no we'll probably end up second tier and irrelevant like europe soon enough

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

But the Romans didn't have their own mistakes to learn from. Notice, if you will, that no American president has ever made his horse a general.

― Huck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040811/ap_en_mu/people_andre3000

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish one would. That would be funny.

xpost

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"Other best-dressed men include "Today" co-anchor Matt Lauer, Prince Felipe of Spain, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom."

HAMID KARZAI?

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

We've had an American president who've made Dan Quayle their VP though.

― Bela Lugosi's Dad, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

we've got an american president who made the british government his lapdog too!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

blount, that's been every American president since, what, Wilson?

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

It wouldn't be good if the US went into decline because not only would the rest of the world suffer from the absence of US goods and services (and you gotta admit there are some useful things coming out of the States)... but also we wouldn't be able to sell our goods and services to them. If other economies caught up with the US that would be good - and so in relative terms the US would "decline" - but it's better if nobody grows at the overall expense of any of the most powerful markets in the world.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

christ in many ways we're at the 'former power sucking up and occasionally nominally 'standing up' to current power' mode (as defined and redefined again and again by europe)(esp. lil overeager teacher's pet uk) with china already

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't express that very well but you see what I mean. (xpost)

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

o yeah stence, at least as far back as churchill and fdr conspiring to sink the lusitania

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

hell even hitler rode henry ford's jock

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost to blount - yeah well the Chinese are the only ones buying treasury bonds, dude.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha, USA pwn3d by China!

― Huck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

dude, who owns fucking Canada?

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Greenland, I think.

― Huck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

actually the US stopped OWNING Canada because the return was so lousy.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, "Would the world be a better place if something catastrophic happened to the American economy which resulted in the U.S. no longer being a superpower?" is what al Qaeda reckon. And I don't mean we shouldn't dismiss the idea just because al Qaeda types believe it, I mean that if you try and attack the US economy/polity with a catastrophic plane-into-skyscraper-and-pentagon sort of plan, the US will just start wars all over the place. And the wars are good for the US economy because they get their hands on oil and get to boost their arms industry (which is unimaginably huge) at the same time.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

A few weeks ago, chit chat at the bar turned to the what some fellows thought was the inevitable annexing of Canada by the USA, and I was like, "Oh come on, why buy the cow..."

― Huck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

for "shouldn't" read "should", obviously. xpost

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

godzilla will change everything. starting with ipods

― kephm, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

We're taking back the AIRPLANE, THE INTERNET, ELECTRICITY and the AUTOMOBILE from u fux

― Red Panda Sanskrit (ex machina), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

we're perfectly capable of wrecking our economy through ill-advised tax cuts to the upper class, forget al Qaeda.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:37 (twenty-one years ago)

A big food feature in today's paper says that Ketchup wasn't really invented by Americans. According to the article, ketchup comes from China, where it was made not with tomatoes, but with spiced fish. W.t.f.

― Huck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

dude, who owns fucking Canada?

-- hstencil (hstenc!...), August 11th, 2004.

Celine Dion, I think.

― Wooden (Wooden), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Shatner owns Canada.

― Nemo (JND), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Who owns Canada?

― Huck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Celine lives in Vegas (probably a comped suite, or maybe she owns). Shatner owns a horse farm in Kentucky.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Shatner is an absentee landlord.

― Nemo (JND), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

we're all sharecroppers now.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

spiced fish isn't really from China, though. It's from Chad. Wtf?

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.house.gov/sherman/images/credit_cards.gif

― Red Panda Sanskrit (ex machina), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

The problems with catastrophes as a means of world betterment is that they are so aimlessly and irrationally destructive. Then again, it is always possible that your engaging in a fight with a wildcat might result in a more flattering hairstyle... but the odds don't favour it. More conventional means usually work better.

A far more rational method of getting where you want to go is to identify the harmful aspects of the situation, along with some more attractive alternatives, and then work to make people more aware of their choices and their consequences. It also helps to set a good example in your personal life. This, of course, is more work than daydreaming about a beneficial catastrophe.

― Aimless The Unlogged, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Awww.

I do sort of wonder what the inevitable resource-squeeze from India and China will do to our economy, above and beyond the massive competition they'll present.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

oil at $100 a barrel, that's what.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

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