how long do you think USA will be in the lead?

Question

we all know and history shows us that every empire has its fall
just wondering, how long will it be USA's from now? I guess 200 years because China's going up

Answer 1

just keep voting democrat and you will get your wish much sooner than that.

Answer 2

By "in the lead", do you mean militarily, economically, or culturally?

Militarily, the U.S. is so far ahead that no country or reasonable alliance of countries could possibily defeat it at anything other than a defensive insurgency. And the U.S. is working on better ways to fight a defensive insurgency, while expanding its lead in every other field (including bluewater naval supremacy, air supremacy, space supremacy, information supremacy, nuclear superiority, intelligence superiority, air defense superiority, and conventional ground superiority). The only thing that can defeat the U.S. military at any point in the next 100-200 years is sustained U.S. mismanagement.

Economically, that's up to the U.S. At the moment, things don't look so hot: The U.S. is on top at the moment, followed by Japan and Germany, but all three countries are facing economic time bombs in the form of aging populations and foreign debt.

The aging population thing can be solved in the U.S. by increased immigration and smart policy (it's going to be a lot tougher for Japan and Germany, unfortunately), but the foreign debt is going to take a lot of sacrifice. That sacrifice is going to hurt the American people a lot, but it's the only way to avoid losing a future economic war with China. The question is whether American politicians will be able to tell people what they don't want to hear.

Because the U.S. is a democracy, both parties have to agree that long-term economic reform is more important than winning elections. That's not a terribly likely scenario, but it's not impossible, either.

Economic reform means doing as much as possible to increase the power and resilience of the U.S. economy, while increasing taxes and cutting pork spending to pay off a large portion of our foreign debt. The domestic debt can stay, as can debt owed to friendly nations. But paying interest money to the Chinese because we refuse to raise taxes to pay for our wars is a dead-end game.

But China and India have their own problems, too. It's easy to look at their growth figures and predict a Chinese Century or Indian Century, but remember that in the 1980s people were predicting that the whole world would be eating Sushi and spending Yen by 2050. It didn't happen, because internal mismanagement brought the Japanese economy's natural limitations to the surface. The Chinese and Indians suffer from massive corruption, social inequality, and government incompetence. None of those will necessarily prevent either one from becoming the biggest economy in the world by 2050, but their rise is far from guaranteed.

The most likely scenario is that the EU will rise to the US's level by 2050, with China and India (and possibly others) close on their heels. The end of American dominance will probably be slow aging into a post-superpower economy (think Britain or France) at some point in the next 100-300 years, not a Roman-like collapse.

Answer 3

i think there are a lot of negative people out there that get scared for no reason. In the past people were scared about japan and germany, where is their economy now? not doing too well. people forget that in the 50s and 60s the soviet GNP was much higher than the US. Also, you have to take into affect the fact that the vast majority of chinese people work in american/european/japanese companies. what is going to happen when these chinese workers demand higher wages or try to form unions? there is nothing great about these workers other than the fact that they will work for nothing. once they refuse to work dangerous jobs for long hrs at low pay the corporations will move on to another poor *** country and china will fall into a slump. its globalization and its here to stay. these corporations are like a a parasite. they will feed off of china for as long as they can, then leave when there is nothing left and find a new host, perhaps in asia, south america, or even africa in 50 years. same thing happens in latin america. when things dont work out in panama, they move to el salvador and when things dont work out there they move to hondorus. china is a fad and people need to stop being so dramatic.

Answer 4

Economically we no longer are. If you're talking about possessing large weapons of mass destruction we sure are. The 19th century was the British Empire. USA the 20th century and now I believe Asia will be the 21st. Don't worry its OK probably for us not to have to lead. This is just a normal progression of history. Nothing to fear.

Answer 5

I would guess 20 years max. Our kids are now 38th in the world in math and science, guaranteeing a major loss of our competitive edge in the new hi-tech world. When you include everything, our total debt is around 50 trillion dollars, and unless we go off money, that debt will strangle us. Our leaders are selling us down the river with private deals like NAFTA and the like, so our jobs are going more and more overseas. The last time I called a tech line I spoke to someone in Bombay! We are a strong country, but lately, we are looking like a hobbled horse who needs to be trotting. While we argue about whether to have evolution in the schools, the rest of the world is busy getting the best education they can.

Answer 6

Don't think so, but China is #2 most powerful country next to the US

Answer 7

Well, considering that we are NOT an empire...I would have to say NEVER. Read a dictionary. Look especially under E for empire and then you will realize just how stupid your question is.

Answer 8

economic forecasts predict China and India will both overtake the US by 2020. Once economic power is lost military power means very little -e.g. russia

Answer 9

my crystal ball is sort of foggy right now, but I wonder if in 200 years we still dwell on this planet!

Answer 10

It won't take 200 years if people like Jim get their way and I also have to agree with Karl.

Answer 11

my friend it has been a while since America has led anything. since our educational system has gone to hell our people have become so complacent and uncaring because we can't be a proud people any more and our Jewish ran gov, has trod on the American people to the point they just don't give a damn any more so how long can we last ? not long and that is for sure , we are already the laughing stock of the world , we can't win a war against Mogadishu for example, why??