Those who think the US is still a superpower, I disagree. At one time, we were the manufacturing capital, but now we are the world’s biggest debtor nation.

Our civilization will end someday, just as the others, and the dollar will no longer be the world reserve currency. Look at other reserve currencies, and how long they lasted. The last one to go away is the British pound.

Michael Sherman, in Scientific American, researched 60 civilizations, both ancient and modern. He found the average life span of each was 421 years. Modern civilizations have a life span of 305 years. These societies collapse because they ran out of resources, and their leaders did not plan for this.

One of the best-known examples of a collapsed society is Easter Island. They built great big statutes in honor of their chiefs, until they had cut down every tree and eliminated their food supply. Stupid, right?

But we also are short-sighted, because we are creating asset bubbles, consuming more than we produce, and are dependent for our survival on a resource that we must get from other countries: oil. Why do we not replace our short-sighted closed-minded leaders, since they are not making tough decisions today for our greater good tomorrow? They are not protecting us from the upcoming energy crisis, asset bubbles, underfunded social security and medicare, and all the other problems we discuss.