Wow, SpacePony, that sounds shockingly similar to what white supremacy groups put out.

Don't underestimate other cultures' pride.



My mistake, I should have specified "foreign goverments/leaders". The Ottoman Empire was Turkish.

Windstar, you are only looking at the small picture. X country win over Y country. But there also dozens of other countries, dozens of others mature cultures, and in this day and age, global politics play a much larger role than 100 years ago.

Although you are right, the Geneva Convention does make it harder to win wars. But I think that is one of its goals, to try and deter wars.

http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp

It seems to me that being a "super power" requires a few things.

First and foremost, is having a large population, since the larger your population, the larger your economic capacity, and the larger your overall raw military capacity.

Second is having sufficient natural resources to support your people's, and country's needs (i.e. economy, military, etc...) "Resources" includes food, energy/fuel, and raw materials (like metals, wood, textiles, etc...)

Third is to have a significant, and reasonably well trained and motivated military. It doesn't necessarily have to be well equipped, just substantial and/or suicidal (see how well the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong did in the Vietnam war, or the "insurgents" are doing in Iraq...) Having a substantial AND well equipped military helps, though.

Fourth is to have either a strong economy (or a potentially strong economy, if developed properly) or some other way to motivate the people in the country to work for a common goal.

Fifth is having a stable political/social environment.

Lastly, having strong scientific/technological capabilities is also important, since, in general, a greater degree of technical capability tends to grant advantages to whomever owns them.

There's probably lots of other things that make a significant difference, but the above seem to be the main things that create superpowers.

Put them all together, or even a number of them together (especially the first one) and you tend to get a "superpower" or at least a potential "superpower."

The USA is in a stage like the last century of the Romans.

Yes, it does.. scary but just becase people who are full of hate think it does not mean that it is not correct (or possable). as i said, just a thoght on one way a nation like China could take over the world without firing a shot.


and as far as underestimating "other cultures" pride, take into account what I mentioned about most of those within the culture having a connection to the other culture as well(in this example China) with it being a third culture taking up the rivalry. so lets say that culture #1 has about 20% of the people in the world identify with it and culture # 2 has 20% of the people identify with it and culture #3 has 30% of the people identify with it but in cultures # 2 & 3 25% of each of their cultures also identify with culture#1 then the first culture is more likly to have an edge over the others in obtaining public support.


The USA is in a stage like the last century of the Romans.
In the last centry of the Roman Empire it had already been split into two seperate empires (Eastern & Western) with the western having been distroyed and pillaged more then once. I do not see The United States anywhere near that. In fact I dispute the claim that we are even in a decline at all. Saying that America is indecline cause we are not at the same pinical we were at say 20 years ago is like saying that the stockmarket is in a crash cause it is down 2% from yesterday. forgeting to mention that it is up 50,000% from 60 years ago. You can only really see if it is in decline now by looking at data in the future, in 50 years we will be able to look and say, yes it was or no it was not.

Remember people thought that The United States was done for and doomed for the ash heap many times before 1861, 1930, 1968, 1979, anyway you know what I mean right?


http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp
arrgg... a pox on you!!! I hate it when people present facts that do not fit my narrow interpritation of truth!!!!  
(thanks for the factual info but now I need to go find another myth to use in its place)

Ok, so I don't know if this was mentioned already, but I didn't feel like reading through 8 pages of posts before replying. What it boild down to is this:

China may surpass the US Economical (along with several other countries) but the bottom line is that THEY ARE NOT FREE. The people have no say in the government. We, as Americans, at least have some say in which way our country goes. If we are in a recession, it is our own fault.

In the case that China does become number 1, which it won't, living conditions still woulnd't be as good as the US because no matter if they are 1st or 50th, the living conditions are worse.

As for the future of the US, I beleive that what SpacePony says to be the truth. We are not in a recession. The recession was created by the 'Bush-Haters' to scare people into becoming one of them. The environmentalists feel that if they can scare people enough, which obviously they have since this topic came up on a Sci-Fi Site, they can gain support for not only converting to biofuels and green technologies, but they can also aid the movement to pull out of Iraq.

As for pesticides versus organic, and I'm just throwing this out there, pesticides are dangerous, but really, I'd rather eat chemicals than worms. My grandfather worked with DDT for most of his life, and he is still alive today, and over 85. I'm not saying I need a perfect-looking apple, I just want one that bugs haven't feasted on before I bite into it...

That's two of the most stupid things I've ever read.

Regards the US economy being in a bad way... Just turn on the news! How about a bank going bankrupt and being bought for a pittance. Banks claiming back money at records rates, record mounts of losses, record amounts of repossessions, people aren't spending their money. WAKE UP!!

The problem with DDT, is not through handling it, it's through ingesting it! And the effect that it has on creatures going up through the food chain. There are small amounts on an apple, but you if you eat 10 apples, the DDT builds up in your body (and it doesn't get flushed out). It's even worse if you feed the apples to an animal as feed, then eat the animal, you get a much bigger dose. This has already been proved harmful, and that's why most countries ban DDT and have controls on the pesticides that can be used.

That is not at all in any way shape or form what I said or even implied.

I said that I dispute we are in a decline as a country.


We are in a Recession and Geroge Bush is one of the if not the worst preidents this country has ever had to suffer, that however is another topic!

why would you people be randomly talking about this on a video game website? :NOTSURE:

and to add to the scifi nerd politics now i dont really know much being 13 and all but dosent the US economy go down like every 20 years or so. NOW back to my original subject why are you talking about this on a video game website? :NOTSURE:

yoadjla, wait for your testicles to drop and THEN come back to this post

Caption I: This is what Republicans actually believe
Caption II: ONE OF US ONE OF US

Why post topics like this you just get loads of americans posting and no one listens to any one else. Also america will not always be a super power 100 years ago the brittish empire was the largest in the world and i am sure that they thought that it would never fall. we just don't know what is going to happen but all things end.

Its the modern age Aridias. Things arent as sudden like back then. Plus your PM is about to get ousted so SUCK IT

The British empire was never a superpower until WW2 wiped out the rest of europe and left them as the only one standing. It was just marginally more powerful than France, hence all the lengthy wars between them. Top dog yes, but not capable of walking all over everyone else, if they'd been a super power, WW2 would have been a flash in the pan. Of course, they also dissolved their empire right after attaining the status.

The term superpower came about more because other countries were exterminated on a large scale than by other countries rising in power. With Germany, Spain, France and the Ottoman empire crushed by war and massive devastation in Asia, there simply wasn't any other competition for the three powers that came out on top.

Recession, buzz word status achieved. Sort of like "It's the economy stupid" was the rallying cry of that other fucktard Clinton. Never mind that the business cycle of a capitalist economy has natural, healthy downturns that weed out the weak entities and renew the strength of the over all economy. Never mind that the downturn had already finished and the economy was buzzing along despite claims of doom and gloom. It's a myth, a self fulfilling one if it lasts long enough, but to date, still a myth. A recession is two quarters of negative growth. We've not even had one quarter of negative growth, thus we are not in a recession.

Perhaps we could believe politicians running for office a little less? Lawyers turned politicians, the scum of the earth, immortalized as habitual liars in jokes older than dirt, tell us the sky is green, and we fall for it every time. It's brilliant.

Chinese babies taking over the world. Sorry, got one of those as a relative. Somehow I doubt a couple years of hell in a Chinese orphanage as an unwanted female waste of perfectly good offspring is going to make her sympathetic towards the Chinese way of life. Her parents, that spent over a year trying to get her so they'd have a little girl to go with their three boys, are probably going to be damned influential in her cultural leanings. Besides, China is an old and sick country right now. Massive pollution in their cities and malnutrition every where else is not conducive to a long working life, the reproduction laws aren't going to help there.

I have heard much the same thing. And please note that this is also in regards to moral issues. I don't want to get into the morality of any particular idea, but if one looks at the morality of the Roman Empire at its peak and during its decline it is rather very very similar to the US today. America still has a while on top before it declines, but if the morality of our country continues on a relativistic trend then it is going to decline much faster.

(Please note: I intentionally did not cite specific examples so as not to start a moral dispute in this thread.)

Please dont get to aggresive shibfilet, yoadjia can say what he wants. But let me remind yoadjia that is a
off topic forum. And as long as we do not do something to offend star dock we can say what we want.

I dont get why people keep on saying we are like rome. America is not like Rome. for one thing ther republic is only for men, and had slaves, the U.S has not don that for a long time. The U.S will last for a long time and never become a empire.

My apologies, spacepony, there is supposed to be a new paragraph after the word 'truth'. I didn't mean that you had said that, I just meant that you were right, and then I went on to voice my opinion. Once again, my apologies...

"That's two of the most stupid things I've ever read.

Regards the US economy being in a bad way... Just turn on the news! How about a bank going bankrupt and being bought for a pittance. Banks claiming back money at records rates, record mounts of losses, record amounts of repossessions, people aren't spending their money. WAKE UP!!"

You need to wake up! Ask any one of the various UPS or FedEx drivers that coast by your house numerous times a day, and I garauntee you that they will tell you that they are busier than ever. Banks are going bankrupt because no one is paying them, but that doesn't mean no one is buying anything! With the cost of gas rising, more people are buying off the internet, and if they do go out to shop, they are buying locally.

I would also like to point out that you are right though, people aren't spending money, they're spending credit, which is money that they don't have. Ergo they can't pay the banks, therefore the banks close.

Nequa,
People liken the Roman Empire to the US because Rome was the beginning of the Democracy. It is not implying that we enjoy conquering, have slaves, build huge walls (although the Mexican Border could be argued), or have a society completely run by men. It is only an analogy; a way to prove a point.

Good point. I don't recall the term "Superpower" ever being truly used to describe a country before WW2. And initially, the two superpowers were the first two countries to develop nuclear weapons.



Another good point. The economy is changing. How will everyone adapt to the changes remains to be seen though. Time will tell.

really, well nice to see they are not saying that america is Rome. May have been a great empire but it sure left a huge trail of bodies in its wake.