Comments by "Luredreier" (@Luredreier) on "Wars of the 2020s and 30s." video.
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22:37
The analysis here leaves quite a bit to be desired as far as its evaluation of the economy is concerned.
It's not the economic trade terms that's hurting the middle class in America, it's poor governance.
As for the trade imbalance...
In reality USA is just very successful in selling one of its most valuable products, the US dollar, a currency backed not just by purchasing power inside the US but also around the rest of the world.
There's huge amounts of it out there, so it losing value would be horrible for the rest of the world, ensuring that we have a wested interest in keeping you guys going.
As for your debt.
As long as your economic growth is higher then your increase in debt it's ok to take on more debt as a proportion of your total economy.
The trade imbalance is greatly favoring Americans as far as living standards is concerned.
Trump and Sanders becoming major players has more to do with the electoral system in the USA, it just isn't flexible enough to deal with nuances.
It discourages voting for other political parties leading to two parties that's both encouraged to go at each others throats and antagonize each other.
Instead of encouraging politicans that are open for compromises and that's constantly searching for allies among multiple different political parties all vying for power.
A multiparty system with more then one path to power (no major party being reasonably sure that they can come to power on their own but their potential allies also not being irreplaceable) is often too complicated to allow going out too hard against others and you keep getting nuanced views as minor parties either on the sides or in the middle always can play kingmakers if the major parties fail to play by ear with their populations enough to remain popular.
So you don't risk having the major parties essentially highjacked by one faction or another within the parties, and views that's at odds with both major parties can be expressed without dominating anything or being ignored.
The major parties plays a big part in shaping what people discuss and therefore how they think.
As for your idea about the US not needing the rest of the world...
Yeah, no...
The US economy isn't stable at all and relies entirely on the rest of the world to stay afloat...
It's just as brittle as you describe Russia or China being.
Just like any other country there's some things that USA just can't find within its borders (some are not even found in its sphere of influence).
Look how all of the US needs of the following minerals where covered in 2018:
Arsenic, asbestos, cesium, fluorspar, gallium, natural graphite, indium, manganese, natural sheet mica, nepheline syenite, niobium, rare earths, rubidium, scandium, strontium, tantalum, thorium, and vanadium.
Likewise there's technology that just doesn't exist within the US used to make products that American companies rely on in their own supply chains in order to produce their own products.
USA can't maintain anywhere close to its current economic output without the rest of the world.
Yes, the US could go isolationist if it wanted but that would be just as harmful for USA as it was for China or Japan when those countries did the same thing.
Also, the international world order doesn't entirely depend on the US either.
Yes, USA invented it and benefits greatly from it (we're already paying the tribute you mentioned in the form of the rest of us propping up your currency, without the US military and economic alliance the motivation to do so would go down), but we are able to maintain the international world order without the states, although I'll admit that it won't be easy...
The majority of nations in the world are democratic by now and we're linked by a number of intricate relationships of various kinds, diplomatic, economic etc.
And while losing American influence will upset a lot of those there's still too many incentives to keep it for most nations.
Or at least their elites.
There's only so much that China or Russia can do.
Yes, there might be some wars.
But overall we've all had a taste of a world where you don't have to pay for a huge navy on a nation by nation basis and where wars isn't the first choice of action in times of conflict.
War and large armies just aren't economically sound.
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