USA = Fall of Roman Empire?

[ilikeboobs]

Found this rather interesting. A government official compares the current state of the US to the fall of the Roman Empire. I think I may have to agree with him on most of it. But what do you chimps think?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/80fa0a2c-49ef-11dc-9ffe-0000779fd2ac.html

[vyo476]

The biggest problem - who is going to be first to take steps to prevent this?

The three problems touched on by the article are the decline of moral values and political civility, the overconfidence and overstretching of the military, and the irresponsibility of government spending.

The whole "morals" issue is one that there is little point in arguing; we're never all going to agree on what is moral and how to make sure that society follows a set morality.

The military issue is another one we probably won't agree on. From what I've seen, we are exceptionally overconfident when it comes to our military. I've heard way, way too many people call the American military "unbeatable." Rather than being the truth, all that statement does is set us up for a really rude awakening.

And how do we fix irresponsible government spending when we can't agree on a definition of "responsible" government spending? The conservatives would call all welfare programs irresponsible, whereas the liberals would call cutting taxes for the wealthy irresponsible. I think we could all agree on what's inefficient in our government, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.

There is a definite polarization in America today between liberals and conservatives that may be impossible to overcome. For a second, I was going to suggest we split the country in half between the liberals and the conservatives (thereby alleviating the tension between the two groups), but then I realized...the Romans tried that, too, and look where it got them.

[palerider]

Pretty simplistic comparison. It works on the surface, but rome's problems ran much deeper and aren't really analogous to the US in any way.

[steveox]

This is why USA would fall
http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/3883682/3888524http://www.wwe.com/content/media/images/309846/1692656/3749300/20061217_arm_post_inferno.jpg
Now how can anybody cheer on that sick ****? Burn someone on fire in a Rope fire match? The same sick **** rome cheered on this.
http://www.esc2.net/TIEYear3/projects/rome/Images/lion.JPG
http://images.realtravel.com/media/lg/8d/30/8d30cd21503b20e51901c5aabd467073.jpg
Thats why Rome Fell!

[ilikeboobs]

Religiously speaking, the US (and western europe for that matter) is far worse than sodom and gommorah ever were. God's pissed and i don't blame him if he causes the US to fall like Rome did.

[palerider]

Religiously speaking, the US (and western europe for that matter) is far worse than sodom and gommorah ever were. God's pissed and i don't blame him if he causes the US to fall like Rome did.

I won't argue that, but it doesn't make the author's comparisons to rome valid.