https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jan/3/america-is-showing-signs-of-early-decay/America is showing signs of an early decayBy Richard W. Rahn - - Tuesday, January 3, 2023
The history of the world is in good part the history of the rise and fall of empires. The USA (American) empire is the latest, and even though it is only a little more than 200 years old, it is already showing signs of decay, which may be fatal.
Americans like to refer to their country as a “superpower” rather than an imperial empire. In their day, Britain and Rome were also superpowers but did not recoil from referring to themselves as imperial empires. Most “empires” were short-lived as they plundered their neighbors or tried to impose some religion or ideology — usually with bad results. Hitler’s “thousand-year Reich” managed to exist for only about a decade.
The most successful empire in history was the British, which lasted about 400 years and controlled about a quarter of the Earth’s land area and population. The British succeeded in part because they were in intense competition with the French, the Spanish and others, and were keenly aware that if their little island were to survive, it had to be more efficient and innovative than its bigger rivals.
Many of the thought leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment were the intellectual force in the British Parliament, yet only lukewarm at best when it came to Empire. But they did establish the principles of how it could best survive — free trade, protection of private property, the rule of law, etc. The British expats who served in the various colonies brought along their institutions, clubs, sports and manners, which were often adopted by the colonists out of choice rather than coercion.
After World War I, the United States became the predominant empire as it picked up the financial, industrial, military and even global cultural and entertainment mantle from the British. The British had been exhausted by WWI and the increasing cost of maintaining their colonies. Despite having “won,” the even greater cost of World War II made the end of empire for the British a certainty.
Most empires die from overextending themselves, often with costly military adventures, leading to near bankruptcy, and from an increasingly lazy, incompetent, and corrupt political and civil service class. Signs of American decay are all too obvious — from rising crime rates in many big cities to declining educational test scores. Real wages are no longer keeping up with or exceeding the rate of inflation — caused by undisciplined spending.
Normally, as countries become wealthier, they also become healthier, with longer life expectancies. A study released last week shows that after two centuries of increasing life spans, the U.S. has reversed course, with life expectancies falling back to the 1996 level. Some of it is likely temporary as a result of COVID-19, but much of it is a result of lifestyle choice with increasing drug use, etc. Medical science continues to make great gains, yet at the same time, much of the population is becoming less healthy — the contradiction being a sign of societal rot.
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