It's very obvious that amerikkka is circling the drain now, but clearly this didn't just happen in a vacuum. It must've started crumbling at some point... but when?

Some people might say it started after 9/11, others might say it goes back to the Raegan administration. A few might even say it started after losing the Vietnam War, or when they went off the gold standard. Or maybe even earlier...

What do you think? three-heads-thinking

  • Yllych [any]
    ·
    2 months ago

    The early 1970s marks a downturn of the rate of profit which the US has not been able to escape, only delay through a neoliberal turn, increasing financialisation etc. by and large I feel that the rise and fall of a hegemon can't be overly simplified but if you're gonna go by a quick and dirty rule I think that one suffices.

    • DyingOfDeBordom [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      i was going to say the 70s stagflation nonsense leading towards the hollowing out and outsourcing of american manufacturing but idk I'm ignorant

      • Wheaties [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        Part of the reason stag-flation "wasn't supposed to happen" was because it was expected the government would step in and prevent it. Nixon froze grocery prices in response. Can you imagine a president doing that today? Since then, all the blank-check intervention has been on behalf of capitalists, of people who own things for their living.

        • DyingOfDeBordom [none/use name]
          ·
          2 months ago

          yeah I know, with the minor exception of emergency covid shit (i.e. the trump bux and enhanced unemployment) the working class has had fucking nothing for decades

      • Yllych [any]
        ·
        2 months ago

        I see people here mentioning a lot of good, specific points regarding American decline like the events of 2008 and I would just add to that, that events like those are ultimately downstream of capital's attempts to restore profitability

    • Muad'Dibber@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      2 months ago

      Agree with this. The post-ww2 period was the height / peak of US power, militarily and economically, and by the 70s it started it's slow decline, esp in manufacturing. They do a lot of things to forestall it, like converting from an industry to finance capital, but you can't keep that up forever.