"Our" British cousins have first-hand experience with what it means to have fallen off the top of that mountain: The British "Empire" decayed in 80 years from "sun never sets", to "GDP between Mississippi and Alabama", and is currently being colonized by denizens of its former colonies.
But everything moves faster now: I'll give us five years until 'we' lead at nothing.
The never-spanked, 'trophy-for participation' population of the US may behave very badly upon realizing that "we ain't #1".
Also, there's serious doubt whether the next "king of the hill" on that chart will be any mixture of "western", 'democratic' or "christian". At least the former top-dogs shown in the meme were largely structurally and culturally similar. No more.
The next "Boss-daddy" will almost certainly be from an old, hard culture with a long memory and plenty of grudges against the new "has-been".
In 1971 President Richard Nixon suspended the convertibility of the USD to gold, thus creating a fully fiat global reserve currency system. However, gold has persisted as a significant reserve asset since the collapse of the classical gold standard.
I like to remind European scolds of that event, because without their acquiescence, it never could have happened.
Euros (and the wealthier parts of Asia) have paid trillions in premiums for the 'privilege' of using "our" Petro-dollar™ to purchase energy for almost 50 years. All of which could have been avoided by foreclosing on the US the minute Nixon pulled that stunt.
It's like grand theft auto, except we're the hooker that gets ran over and money stolen.
"Our" British cousins have first-hand experience with what it means to have fallen off the top of that mountain: The British "Empire" decayed in 80 years from "sun never sets", to "GDP between Mississippi and Alabama", and is currently being colonized by denizens of its former colonies.
But everything moves faster now: I'll give us five years until 'we' lead at nothing.
The never-spanked, 'trophy-for participation' population of the US may behave very badly upon realizing that "we ain't #1".
Also, there's serious doubt whether the next "king of the hill" on that chart will be any mixture of "western", 'democratic' or "christian". At least the former top-dogs shown in the meme were largely structurally and culturally similar. No more.
The next "Boss-daddy" will almost certainly be from an old, hard culture with a long memory and plenty of grudges against the new "has-been".
I like to remind European scolds of that event, because without their acquiescence, it never could have happened.
Euros (and the wealthier parts of Asia) have paid trillions in premiums for the 'privilege' of using "our" Petro-dollar™ to purchase energy for almost 50 years. All of which could have been avoided by foreclosing on the US the minute Nixon pulled that stunt.
america is entering a time of collapse. we are not the world's sole superpower any longer. the sun will set on the american empire.