Friedman argues America’s power on the world stage will actually increase in the 21st Century for three major reason:
- The immense size of the U.S. economy: The current crisis is painful and America’s deficits are shocking on an absolute basis but are “trivial” relative to the country’s net worth, which Friedman estimates is about $340 trillion.
- The unrivaled dominance of the U.S. Navy: Even in the digital age, control of the high seas is paramount in geopolitics.
- The ability of the U.S. to absorb immigrants, both culturally and in terms of the nation’s relatively low population density.
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I highly value Stratfor for mainstream “geopolitical” analysis (much better analysis than newspapers).
However, the flaw in Stratfor’s point of view is viewing the world as competition between nation-states. It’s not. What matters is quality of life for people, much of which cannot be measured in dollars as far as crime, anxiety, health, time, and freedom. And as far as newspaper headlines of a nation-state’s “strength,” this is mostly the ability to manipulate its own population for good or ill. Nation-states are a figment of our imagination, and what passes as history or news is just Shakespearean actors playing their roles; by that I mean that the publicized reasons for nation-state causality are fake. I swear, each time I see a news article about Kim Jong-Il, I sense a glitch in the Matrix. Deja Vu. I used to watch a LOT of sitcoms growing up…until I started seeing the same plots over and over again on different series; that, and laugh tracks are truly Orwellian.
340 Trillion divided by the US population comes to over $1 Million Per Capita. I seriously doubt that most of the service sector economy will end up with more than 20% of that average.
And as far as jobs, the Manufacturing and the service sector will continue to mechanize…not to mention outsourcing.
Quality of life could theoretically could improve with increased productivity…but it depends on how profits are distributed. Right now, the power is in the hands of the gangsters.