Decline of the American Empire
By Jon Taplin - August 1, 2009, 12:44PM
If ever we needed evidence of the Cost of Empire, Floyd Norris's scary chart of Durable Goods Production from the U.S. Economy is it.
We have so hollowed out our industrial plant that the only thing we are now producing is weapons of war. The great British Historian Arnold Toynbee's theory about the decline of the Roman Empire has lessons for our current age.
The economy of the Empire was basically a Raubwirtschaft or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. The Empire relied on booty from conquered territories (this source of revenue ending, of course, with the end of Roman territorial expansion) or on a pattern of tax collection that drove small-scale farmers into destitution (and onto a dole that required even more exactions upon those who could not escape taxation), or into dependency upon a landed ?lite exempt from taxation. With the cessation of tribute from conquered territories, the full cost of their military machine had to be borne by the citizenry.
This I know. We cannot continue on this course of decline. While many of the elite escape taxation with their brilliant "tax shelter" accountants, the middle class (Rome's "small scale farmers") are being asked to shoulder the economic burden of empire.
Shortly after the election President Obama made it clear that the chokehold of the Military Industrial Complex over our economy was not going to change on his watch--"To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief we have to maintain the strongest military on the planet." After all, with 4% of the world's people why shouldn't we spend 45% of the world's military spending?
While Obama makes symbolic cuts in the Military budget, the House threw in 550 new earmarks into a $636 Billion Military Budget. Lyndon Johnson thought we could have both Guns and Butter, but he was wrong. Both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were afraid to take on the Military Industrial Complex that the Republicans have always favored. Eisenhower was right that continuing on this disastrous course is a form of generational theft. According to Catherine Lutz the U.S. Military has "909 military facilities in 46 countries and territories." This is truly insane. We need to bring the personnel on these bases home and start selling off the precious foreign real estate to help liquidate our massive debt.
I have only one question--Where is the national politician with the courage to say we no longer have to act as the unpaid policeman of the world?
By Jon Taplin - August 1, 2009, 12:44PM
If ever we needed evidence of the Cost of Empire, Floyd Norris's scary chart of Durable Goods Production from the U.S. Economy is it.
We have so hollowed out our industrial plant that the only thing we are now producing is weapons of war. The great British Historian Arnold Toynbee's theory about the decline of the Roman Empire has lessons for our current age.
The economy of the Empire was basically a Raubwirtschaft or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. The Empire relied on booty from conquered territories (this source of revenue ending, of course, with the end of Roman territorial expansion) or on a pattern of tax collection that drove small-scale farmers into destitution (and onto a dole that required even more exactions upon those who could not escape taxation), or into dependency upon a landed ?lite exempt from taxation. With the cessation of tribute from conquered territories, the full cost of their military machine had to be borne by the citizenry.
This I know. We cannot continue on this course of decline. While many of the elite escape taxation with their brilliant "tax shelter" accountants, the middle class (Rome's "small scale farmers") are being asked to shoulder the economic burden of empire.
Shortly after the election President Obama made it clear that the chokehold of the Military Industrial Complex over our economy was not going to change on his watch--"To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief we have to maintain the strongest military on the planet." After all, with 4% of the world's people why shouldn't we spend 45% of the world's military spending?
While Obama makes symbolic cuts in the Military budget, the House threw in 550 new earmarks into a $636 Billion Military Budget. Lyndon Johnson thought we could have both Guns and Butter, but he was wrong. Both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were afraid to take on the Military Industrial Complex that the Republicans have always favored. Eisenhower was right that continuing on this disastrous course is a form of generational theft. According to Catherine Lutz the U.S. Military has "909 military facilities in 46 countries and territories." This is truly insane. We need to bring the personnel on these bases home and start selling off the precious foreign real estate to help liquidate our massive debt.
I have only one question--Where is the national politician with the courage to say we no longer have to act as the unpaid policeman of the world?
