"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship." - Alexander Tyler

I'm not suggesting that the USA will cease to exists, but simply suggesting that it's days as the World's economic & military Superpower are numbered. IMO the writing is on the wall & it's only a matter of time.

So how long have we got?

'bout tree-fiddy, obv.

Part of my graduate work was actually a paper on this exact topic of which I titled "The Future of Democracy". I received a high grade, 97%, despite not even having a bibliography. Such is so, my paper as it were concludes that a perennial confusion brought about by an increased transparency with the perception of democratic principles will lead to a new, satanic, ideology that I dub a "demonocracy".

What does your post have to do with your title? Are you trying to debate empires or democracies here?

So you fellated your professor's frontal lobes really nicely, eh?

I remember when I quoted System of a Down " Why don't presidents fight the war, why do they always send the poor?" and got an A. It was quite the piece of academia.

System of a Down sucks.

but liberal history teachers eat that contrived bs right up.

It's not already over?

I'm going to answer the thread question about empire, not the mechanical quote about democracy.

The American empire has repeatedly reinvented itself, but the form it's taking now seems based on military dominance of a key resource -- oil. It's like those irrigation states that developed in Southeast Asia -- all power belonged to the city that controlled the headwaters of a vast irrigation system. And by controlling Mideast oil, Washington can leverage advantages from many a country. So it looks like our military caste and its empire will remain in place until the oil runs out.

Or it finds new resources that are centralized enough to control, or the American public decides to cast out the money changers.

Fossil fuel based economies can't have *that* long left, can they? One way or another!

We have as long as it takes before an entire 2/5 no limit table in Florida buys in full. That is 10 players @ $500- ain't gonna happen

Foreverland sir

\

Keep your head down bro.We are outnumbered. Great haircut Meredity gave hhi hair cutF

I'm not sure what you mean but they enjoyed it and afterwords we went out for drinks because we're friends.

I have thought of this alot actually.

In 12 -20 years, most of the money the government takes in is going to pay seniors SS payments and cover their health care. ALL the money working people pay in taxes will go to debt service, SS, and medicare. Someone will come out and rally the people in their 20s,30s, 40s that the generation that we are paying for is the same generation that ran up the 30 trillion debt, and they have to be cut off completely.

It will be very ugly and I will be pushing 60, so GG.

Even the Ryan budget allowed all baby boomers to get full benies, before the people under 50 take haircuts.

Obamacare will put it off a tad by not treating old people on medicare for alot of stuff, but that only supports a societal attitude that your too old, cost to much, take some pain pills, you got to go.

It's hard to invision a way that we will be the same country in 25 years.

I will try and put some math behind it:

Let's take the rule of 72, which allows us to roughly calculate how long it will take for the country's debt to double from interest alone if the budget were balanced:

Say the U.S. pays 4% interest on its loans and that interest will never increase for any reason. 72/4=18. If the budget were balanced and the U.S. had a stable 4% interest rate on its debt, the debt would double in 18 years. However, we know that the interest on U.S. debt is not stable, in fact, it is dependent on market conditions.

The budget isn't balanced either and is nowhere near balanced. S.S., Medicare, and Medicaid costs will also likely increase. If we continue down the current path, Moody's will likely downgrade us and S&P is likely to downgrade us further, which affects countries wanting to lend to us and increases the interest on our debt. Europe is in bad shape, restricting the likelihood of their future lending. By 2020, our debt is projected to be $20 Trillion, and that would mean we spend less than $6 Trillion over the next eight years? That doesn't seem likely. Nothing looks good long-term. Looks like by 2020 or 2025 we're going to have over $20 Trillion in debt and a bad credit rating.

If enough animals die, eventually we will have more fossil fuels again.

Yes, but only the giblets make light sweet crude.

This.

On what are you basing the military part?

Seems like the unspoken plan is to continue to beef up our already overwhelming military to make sure that even if we can't get what we want with our money, we'll have enough strength to just take it.

This largely depends on the American public, imo. If we continue to put up with incompetence in Washington the economic side will come pretty quick.

This is not what has happened in the US. Voters do not vote themselves anything btw. Maybe you've misunderstood how the political process works?


You certainly do not understand how your economy works. It helps if you understand a/ that money is how you keep score, not actually a thing of value and b/ the question is not how you pay for seniors but whether you can acquire the resources to maintain them. Given that (b) is not a difficult question, you can stop worrying.

You could if you chose pay your debt back tomorrow with no really bad consequences. There is no "debt crisis". It's entirely manufactured. Why would anyone manufacture it? Did you not notice your "liberal" president agreeing that he needs to steal seniors' share of your nation's resources?

Nearly everything in your post is wrong, I'm sorry to say, and you'll look back on it in five or ten years and laugh at yourself. Really.

You will continue to get what you want because you have 300 million consumers and a lot of natural resources. You could pretty much disband your military and the only problem you'd be causing would be the increase in unemployment.

FYP

America is NOT an empire, it is a country. Regardless of that, it could not last long if the economy doesn´t grow but its debt does.

no u

Well.........exporting manufacturing jobs & now the "cloud" and other tech innovations will end the need for many IT jobs..........the bulk of new jobs since 2008 are govt. jobs & the debt has become kinda' big...IMO.

What we'll end up having is a "New World Order" where each country gets its own piece of the economic pie & has the rights to certain exports, so that everyone can sustain their own country. Kinda like the Mafia's Commission..... which is doing very well. So many believe that the day of organized crime families is history. IMO, they are right in your community, from pickin up your trash, to running the local racetrack & gambling casino, i.e., Hollywood Casino & Slots in Charles Town, West Virginia.