Most powerful economy, military, innovative ideas, open society...

Most powerful economy, military, innovative ideas, open society etc. what is there not to make sense?

Wow, innovative ideas and an open society!! Makes the rest of our Western and advanced Asian nations look sick with our total lack of ideas & wall-to-wall fascist dictatorships.

Falling back on the 'powerful military' is a pretty sick concept in itself. "Buy our products, keep our dollar as your reserve currency....or we'll bomb you". Have I got your line of thinking correct?

Powerful empires fall. Just look at the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, the Spanish, the British etc for notable examples.

The current fad btw, as evidenced by Dr Who & many other posters, is to state that 'technology' has now made the lessons of history and fundamental economic truisms redundant.

Time and time again I return to the words of Darth Vader in foreseeing the disastrous outcome of hubris: "Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed."