For some Strange reason, DISPEL reminds me of this guy:
and it has been almost 20 years since i forgot about the Smurfs.
and it has been almost 20 years since i forgot about the Smurfs.
ANCIENT DYNASTY PLOTS TO SILENCE 1,3 BILLION BLOGGERS
- Thread starter evelynds
- Start date
the US dollars is now backed by the supremacy of the american army, the debt may be huge but america can take over the country they want and they actually do it, so the us dollar is still and will continue to be valuable
True dat.
Also Dispel is probably right about geography. I'm not 100% sure how he's meaning it but the way I'm seeing it is that geographically we're a nice secure bank. We have very few access points for rogue countries or even terrorist groups. Meanwhile Europe, Asia, and Africa are all up in each others faces.
Maybe there will never be another world-wide conflict but if there is Europe and Asia always burn to the ground first. The old world has tons of smaller countries with very bitter histories. We have none of that.
Sure you see American cinema where we berate ourselves for some sins against Indians, racism, etc. But the hate, racism, crimes, and sins of the old world dwarf anything found in the new world. And that hate is much stronger than it is here.. you just dont see it in the movies because we make most the movies.
Then we have the fact that our population sizes have remained fairly sane. Meanwhile, I don't know WTF is going on in some of these countries like China and India. Seems like bad socio-economic conditions in those countries could cause a humanitarian disaster. And that sort of thing can spill over into adjacent countries. How hard is it to wear a fucking condom for fucks sake.
And we still have a ton of resources and after we invade Canada we'll have even more.
if it all comes down to geography like Dispel claims, then why is his country, Australia not dominating the world already? unlike any other country in the world, they have a whole continent just for themselves.
WJ, you've heard of China's one-child policy right? Their population is about to start shrinking, as the pre-1-child generation ages and dies away. India will overtake them in 15-25 years.
You're totally right about the old world racism though. Just look at what happened when Yugoslavia broke up.
And you're about the geography, although thats half the story. Security and resources yes and also huge advantages for trade - the massive shorelines, access to the Atlantic and the Pacific, huge secure harbours, massive river systems, all these tings facilitate trade. An example of the opposite is Russia - the economy is always at a massive disatvantage - only a couple of decent ports and all their major rivers flow into the Arctic, which is useless. Then the roads freeze over in winter and their borders are indefensible - nice big plains that everyone just waltzes across - the Northern European plane for example, with Napolean and the Germans (3 times) hitting across it. The Mongols from the other end. This is why the Russians are always paranoid, always pushing out their borders to create borders. And why they always revert to totalitarian central control - its the only thing that can hold it together when travel and trade from one end to the other is so diffilult. The US has unique in the world in that it does not have its problems, since the wars of centuries past. That plus its free market is what made it so strong.
You're totally right about the old world racism though. Just look at what happened when Yugoslavia broke up.
And you're about the geography, although thats half the story. Security and resources yes and also huge advantages for trade - the massive shorelines, access to the Atlantic and the Pacific, huge secure harbours, massive river systems, all these tings facilitate trade. An example of the opposite is Russia - the economy is always at a massive disatvantage - only a couple of decent ports and all their major rivers flow into the Arctic, which is useless. Then the roads freeze over in winter and their borders are indefensible - nice big plains that everyone just waltzes across - the Northern European plane for example, with Napolean and the Germans (3 times) hitting across it. The Mongols from the other end. This is why the Russians are always paranoid, always pushing out their borders to create borders. And why they always revert to totalitarian central control - its the only thing that can hold it together when travel and trade from one end to the other is so diffilult. The US has unique in the world in that it does not have its problems, since the wars of centuries past. That plus its free market is what made it so strong.
I meant it comes down to geography in the competition between the countries discussed above - US, India, China. Also read my last post - it explains what I mean by the importance of geography, which should make Australia's imperfect position clear.
Taking what I explained into account, Australia's geography has the following drawbacks - its far away from the world's economic hot spots. Its ports are further away still. It is also mostly desert, so travel (and thus trade) internally is restricted. Only the coastal areas can support large populations and are good for agriculture. Technically it may as well be a series of islands, not one big one (plus Tasmania etc). It does have security though. Its resources are decent for its size and its population, but thats actually its main drawback - a population of 20 million can barely swing it on the world stage. Its economy can only grow so large and its military power can never be significant with a population that size. Power is a combination of the economic, political and military.
If it had the population of say Japan, with the same per capita income (distributed as evenly among the vast majority) it would be far far more powerful.
But yes, Australia is one of the few countries I consider to have a reasonably bright future for decades to come. Island nations especially with big homogenous and internally stable populations always have that advantage - like Japan and the UK. Living on an island also creates a confidant culture and islands are so much harder to invade. Again, consider the terminally paranoid Russians at the opposite end of the scale.
I agree when people start dumping their US currency in large amounts the politicians will have no choice. I notice a lot of people are buying gold and silver also (mostly silver my circle can't afford to buy gold at its price).
HarveyJ
He is - THE CACTUS!
Don't forget that if we really wanted to, we could be the dominant nuclear power, as Australia has over 60% of all known fissile material reserves, and could basically say we're starting a nuclear program and not let any one have any of our shit.
It's a good thing that our country was founded and run by bureaucrats that just wanted to sit back and take it easy, and that we prefer being relatively peaceful on a national level, because we don't have issues about our gigantic penises that are large enough for their own cork hats.
Seriously though, it does come down entirely to the fact that whilst Australia is huge and has plenty of resources, we have SFA in terms of arable land, and lose more of it annually. But if globalized trade and travel did suddenly break down, we'd probably be ok as we have still have a local manufacturing base for a lot of essentials and even some of the more advanced electronics.