The keeper of the empire’s books sounds alarmist:
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.
These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.
Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
Does anyone have an idea what "declining moral values" Walker is alluding to? Every generation thinks its children are debauched – nothing new there.
And the money issue can be easily solved:
Step 1: Tax personal income above 1 million per year at 50-60% and half the budget problem is solved.
Step 2: Cut the military. If the U.S. mainland is not in immediate danger to be run over while its military is bogged down and beaten in a tiny far away country, then the militray is obviously not needed to defend the homeland. Just cut it away and the other half of the budget problem goes away with it – and the empire.
Running an empire is a net loss. Rome eventually learned that lesson. The UK learned that lesson. And the U.S. will learn it too.
Mr. Walker may not like it, but the U.S. empire will eventually fall just like Rome’s. That’s fine with me. The world can live better without empires. So I can only add: faster please.