While people complains about minor stuff about american and praising china, i think we all forget some of the realities of china.

First of all, china has all the financial problems listed above. People also forget about the humantarian aspect of china. I've read countless chinese communist violation on human rights and their brutalities toward their own people. Things need to be change BIG time before china can move forward and become one of the first world countries, let alone become number 1.

I agree with Brian. I'm extremely critical of the US's foreign policy, but I get really put off by people who shit on America (and this is coming from a Canadian). It's interesting to me living in South Korea to listen to American expats trash their country and go on and on about how they're finished with it and they're never going back....they always do though. As far as China is concerned, people do need to realize that China has massive problems, one of which is the fact that a huge portion of the country lives in poverty.
Jcxky mentioned the fact that China lacks an appealing ideal, and I think this huge. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the world isn't Confucius, and would have absolutely no desire to embrace this social model. It simply does not appeal to the majority of countries outside of East Asia.

We we're talking about China in regards to economic dominance. If you want to talk cultural dominance, then that's a whole different conversation.

Not necessarily. We're talking about the decline of the US's influence and power, and who will hold such influence and power after America has dropped out. The key word is influence, so no, I don't think you can rule out cultural dominance.

(09-17-2011 10:52 PM)Mark Wrote:  We we're talking about China in regards to economic dominance. If you want to talk cultural dominance, then that's a whole different conversation.

Economically, the us will remain dominant for quite a while. We are not (current recession notwithstanding) in economic decline.


Our % of global GDP has been constant for some time. The change is the rise of china relative to Europe, not us. This is somewhat concerning since this means our allies are being surpassed by a less friendly country. However, remember that in pure economic terms the eu was and still is larger than us, but we were more dominant for a few reasons - better ability to present a unified front, not having language issues, being perceived as more reliable than some euro countries (Greece)

That, and having the biggest military in world history doesn't hurt.

Are we talking about the U.S or Chinese military?

US... duh.

EDIT: I think I should be more clear, most advanced and powerful military. China may have more active members on duty.

Btw, dont forget that "asian/oceana" gdp goes up that high because it's also include Japan, Singapo, south korea etc. If you eliminate every other wealthy asian nation...and only include china, the gdp is obviously much lower.

No way in hell it could compete with US lol.

(09-12-2011 03:12 PM)Mark Wrote:  Agreed.

The US is done. I don't mean that in a, "the country is going to collapse" way. But in terms of the influence and power and qualify of life it's had over the last 100 years, it's done. Sad thing is, no one living in it seems to notice. They're all in denial. Everyone still blindly believes that we're the most advanced nation in the world in every category, when we've been passed in every pretty much ever category other than military and GDP (standard of living, GDP per capita, health coverage, education, life satisfaction, working hours, wages, employment, etc., etc., etc.). The problems are all systemic and no one seems to give a shit enough to do anything except for psycho Tea Partiers (who are making it worse).

If you're super smart and want to get rich, the US is still probably the best place to go. But if you're an average Joe... or if you have ANY other priorities than money or fame, you're better off in many other places.

I'm kind of curious, your obviously ridiculously well travelled Mark. Do you have any plans to return and settle down in the US once your travelling is over, or do you want to settle elsewhere? In your experience, what country or region of the world do you think you'd want to live in that matches your cultural values, lifestyle, etc.? Lol, sorry if that's a deep personal question.