Che's Motorcycle
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5·6 months agoYeah, I reported that shit.
I’m worried about this as well. Once the pressure is off, they can do whatever they want.
What has led to “the relative decline in U.S. standing,” as the report asks? The opening chapter explains America’s problem starkly: “Its competitive position is threatened both from within (in terms of slowing productivity growth, an aging population, a polarized political system, and an increasingly corrupted information environment) and outside (in terms of a rising direct challenge from China and declining deference to U.S. power from dozens of developing nations).”
This decline is “accelerating,” warns the study. …
What causes national decline? The Rand authors cite triggers that are all too familiar in 2024. “Addiction to luxury and decadence,” “failure to keep pace with … technological demands,” “ossified” bureaucracy, “loss of civic virtue,” “military overstretch,” “self-interested and warring elites,” “unsustainable environmental practices.” Does that sound like any country you know?
The challenge is “anticipatory national renewal,” argue the authors — in other words, tackling the problems before they tackle us. Their survey of historical and sociological literature identifies essential tools for renewal, such as recognizing the problem; adopting a problem-solving attitude rather than an ideological one; having good governance structures; and, perhaps most elusive, maintaining “elite commitment to the common good.”
No chance in hell on that last one, so here’s hoping the rest of their analysis is right.
I think this is the key bit:
After covering its day-to-day operating expenses, the central bank is required to send the money it earns on its securities portfolio to the Treasury, where the revenue helps offset federal deficits.
China bad because China good? Got it.
Monopoly capitalism really can’t help itself… it’s death can’t come fast enough.
So this might be what makes the Ukraine case different. The West is failing so hard to impose any difficulties on Russia that it’s sending a different message to the world - that it can be fought and defeated, and that Global South unity might not only be possible but necessary.
Of course, capitalists want to maximize profits - so long as their power isn’t threatened. And in all three of these cases, they wanted to send a message to any other countries that would dare not toe the line: “you could be next”.
While they certainly would have preferred different outcomes in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, they may well have succeeded in “containing” communism and intimidating independent thinking - certainly Gaddafi got the message and hoped letting in western oil companies would be enough appeasement. And we know how that turned out…
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