Re: query

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

DD: 
> although James [i.e., Jim] is actually correct in the point he was making to me, I
> think; Athens was a "democracy" in the sense that, like the USA, it had a
> tendency to spend the profits of Empire on consumption goods rather than
> reinvesting them in maintaining hegemony.  Or at least, that's how I
> remember it; Shane Mage will presumably know whether this is 
> right or not.

The US spends on a lot consumption goods, or at least on things that don't preserve hegemony. It's hard to see the strategic missile defense as anything but consumption. Similarly a lot of the US winnings are going to boost the incomes of the beleaguered rich folks who are having such a hard time affording caviar. 

The US has a rich person's democracy, while for awhile Athens had a populist slave-owners' democracy.

Jim Devine