Re: Re: Is a real war imminent?

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 05:17 PM 9/13/01 +0200, you wrote:
> Jim Devine:
> > I am not convinced that "imperial decline" is real. That kind of process is
> > reversible. Also, what specifically do you mean? The US industrial economy
> > may be in decline, but its military and financial might are undimmed. The
> > US/NATO as a whole is still pretty strong. The transnationals are running
> > the world economy. Etc.
>
> Re undimmed military power; that's the problem: a declining industry, a
> growing
> trade deficit and an undimmed military power. Can a service society survive by
> itself, without forcing other people to provide it with the goods it does not
> produce? Am I wrong?

My impression is that the US power elite -- the center of the developing
world capitalist class -- sees the _world_ as their oyster, not the US. So
the US economy and society might decline without the US ruling class
suffering. The US elite doesn't care much about the health of the US
economy and society, since they all live in walled communities or places
like Martha's Vineyard (where a lot of elite journalists summer).  (This is
similar to one story of what happened to the UK: the financial interests
there, who had the most political power, didn't care about industrial decline.)

The US capitalist class can live off the rest of the world (in addition to
the service sector, which can be quite profitable*) because of the power of
its IMF and World Bank, and its lock on a lot of "intellectual property"

> Re financial might. Well... To whom is it providing capital for? That's been a
> rather baroque poem lately, or a snake that bites its own tail.

Even though the US owes a lot to the rest of the world, rest assured that
the elite will try as hard as possible to shift the burden to others. Our
taxes will likely pay for it.

> So, things are kind of uggly, as I view it.

I have no disagreement there!

* I disagree with Adam Smith's view that services are unproductive.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine