Soviet Collapse Echoes In China's Belt and Road

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Bloomberg
 David Fickling
August 12, 2018, 2:00 AM EDT

[excerpt]

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-12/soviet-collapse-echoes-in-china-s-belt-and-road-investment

What causes empires to fall?

According to one influential view, it’s ultimately a question of investment. Great powers are the nations that best harness their economic potential to build up military strength. When they become over-extended, the splurge of spending to sustain a strategic edge leaves more productive parts of the economy starved of capital, leading to inevitable decline.

That should be a worrying prospect for China, a would-be great power whose current phase of growth is associated with an increasingly aggressive military posture and a tsunami of capital spending in its strategic neighborhood.

[Absalom]

Bloomberg
 David Fickling
August 12, 2018, 2:00 AM EDT

[excerpt]

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-12/soviet-collapse-echoes-in-china-s-belt-and-road-investment

What causes empires to fall?

According to one influential view, it’s ultimately a question of investment. Great powers are the nations that best harness their economic potential to build up military strength. When they become over-extended, the splurge of spending to sustain a strategic edge leaves more productive parts of the economy starved of capital, leading to inevitable decline.

That should be a worrying prospect for China, a would-be great power whose current phase of growth is associated with an increasingly aggressive military posture and a tsunami of capital spending in its strategic neighborhood.

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Emphatically disagree.
As the 5th century dawned, Rome stretched from Hispania
to Mesopotamia and was the wealthiest entity in the world.
Yet within seven decades it had fallen, but why?
Because it had lost its soul; the values and virtues that had
allowed it to survive and thrive, among them self-discipline,
responsibility, courage, loyalty and honor.
So it is w/all nation/states. What they have in their bank account
is a triviality compared to what they have in their heart and soul.
The spiritual sustains us while the material makes us feel good.
Doubt any of our political schmucks ever heard of this reality?

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

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Emphatically disagree.
As the 5th century dawned, Rome stretched from Hispania
to Mesopotamia and was the wealthiest entity in the world.
Yet within seven decades it had fallen, but why?
Because it had lost its soul; the values and virtues that had
allowed it to survive and thrive, among them self-discipline,
responsibility, courage, loyalty and honor.
So it is w/all nation/states. What they have in their bank account
is a triviality compared to what they have in their heart and soul.
The spiritual sustains us while the material makes us feel good.
Doubt any of our political schmucks ever heard of this reality?

Pulling every tenth soldier out of line and running a sword through his guts to discipline the others, Regardless of who started it, Might have had more to do with the collapse.

They were totalitarian butchers who abused and murdered their own Legions - whom they Desperately Needed to maintain power - which is a great way to throw in the towel as a super power.