who didnât see this coming
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A better question is what it could have bought here in the US
We in the US are sadly following in the footsteps of Ancient Rome and the British Empire , both tried to control vast portions of the globe while ignoring the needs of their own people.
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Jesus this wont end well 
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I agree, it was 2 trillion wasted and many lives lost and BTW the herion trade in western countries have gotten worst and where do 93% of it comes from, Afghanistan
Afghanistan is the Heroin Capital of the World
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Stefan Molyneux (Fall of Rome) postulates that Civilisations / Empires last 3-400 years which he equates to 10 generations.
The whole point of Empires / Civilisations is encapsulated in these words ;
âCivilization rises up in Iron boots and descends in silk slippers.â
Whilst it is self comforting and a nice fluffy thought to believe that the âSilk Slippersâ are the whole purpose of a âcivilised societyâ - The Actual cause of the Fall of Rome is beautifully encapsulated by Molyneux and yes @Dennis3450 you are correct IMO, the American version of âCivilisationâ is following pretty much exactly as did Rome ! Insofar as Rome seemingly invented the âWelfare Stateâ (Which to me includes ever expanding Government and Beaurocracy) where those with no income or (râs) were provided with free âBread and Circussesâ and the âState Employeesâ are all subsidised at the expense of those charged with payng TAXES ! (Kâs) out of Real Work and Production.
Those not included in the âEmpireâ (Barbarians) noticing the comfortable lifestyle of those who do not even bother to work - start to infiltrate the Empire and claim their own Freebies !
When the Kâs no longer have the ability to subsidise the Welfare State, the âStateâ resorts to Debasing the money supply - Romans added base materials to the coinage - USA do âGovernment Debtâ and âQuantitave Easingâ - There is no essential Difference.
The British Empire was somewhat different in that it was an Empire founded on Trade rather than conquest - the downfall however is as yet incomplete - and will only finally fall along with the rest of Europe when the âBarbariansâ , the ârâsâ and the âPublic Servantsâ swamp the âKâsâ ability to pay enough tax money to keep their insanity funded!
towards the end of Rome - Taxpayers were walking away from their land and livelihoods - which the âGovernmentâ made illegal on punishment of death. (did I hear this is taking place in Califorinia even now ?) ANd it was also made illegal for these working men to sell themselves into Slavery !
A friend and I were talking this through the other day and whilst it is quite obvious who the âBarbariansâ are with respect to Europe, we have those waitoing on the sidelines watching USA die and were debating whether âthe BArbarianâ wrt USA would be Chinese CP or Putinâs Russia ? We felt Islam would be busy with Europe and there was one other group which we discussed as âPossiblesâ 
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yes i agree if we all would of mind our own business the world would be a better place, but since we didnât things must come full circle
This is crazy and everyone should be aware of itâŚ
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with everything else that is going on in the world we now have this, get ready for a new round of money printing
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As Iâm sure you know there is an old saying
âSell in May and go away - Donât come back 'til labour Day!â
Historically the major players do indeed come back after the summer holidays and take a look at valuations which have been hiked up in their absence.
Many of the âSudden Crashesâ do indeed happen in October - Sadly in the Schizophrenic era when the FED insists that asset prices are only allowed to go UP - the crashes are merely postponed until the market is so overbought that it just cannot be supported any longer.
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Very Sad
i donât think you kniow the history of these empires and the atrocities they did to countries they was conquering, they murder, rape, child molest, brought homosexuality, brought weapons,alcohol, enslave and toture the people and set up concentration camps for the people that didnât go along with this new so call civilized world and stole their natural resources, they also brought diseases to these countries.
brought all of this to a land of so called Barbarian countries who wasnât doing none of this mayhem until the empire arrived and cause total mayhem in those countries. so now these so called Barbarian countries thinks this is standard and how they should act. but of course we canât have a bunch of Barbarian people acting like us so we must come up with laws to stop this behavior and change the narrative that we never behave in such manner.
the best thing that came out of these empiers was a modern society but civilized it did not because we still have murder, rape, child molestation, homosexuality, weapons, thieves, drugs and alcohol. all the things the empires was into. the same reason Christopher Columbus is no longer celebrated.
the greatest thing empires told was they created a civilized world when in fact the mayhem we see today came from that so called civilized world they created
The greatest gift the universe gave mankind was History
Careful, your friends on the left may come after you for that!
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maybe it was the leftist way of thinking that got us here today
BTW: there was no left or right back in those days, just right or wrong according to god laws, murder, rape, stealing and many other things under his laws that these empires violated
That depends on which God you worship, as I see youâve also included alcohol in your list of âwrongsâ.
Thankfully in todayâs society, homosexuality and alcohol arenât âwrongsâ which is certainly some progress!
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okay, earth wasnât created to be our final destination
BTW; there are laws that been created around alcohol, so the abuse of alcohol has always been wrong, just saying
Ah, for me it is my final destination, which is why it is important (for me) we strive to make the world a better place and we hold our elected officials to account if they try to sabotage that.
I get what you are saying but it is legal after all, I certainly donât feel wrong on an evening with my glass of wine!
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what more can i say, i agree 100%
i like to have a few beverages from time to time. 
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Firstly your response is irrelevant in the context of my post with the exception of ;
Since my entire post was related to the parallels between the decline of Rome and the current decline in the West, particularly the USA - I shall link to the history of that particular decline here ;
[Where you will also find the origin of the word âBarbarianâ and exactly why it is correct in the context of my post ]
âStefan Molyneux The Truth About The Fall Of Rome - YouTubeâ
You speak of your view of how the victors treated the vanquished. In a world where men have been selectively bred for their abilities in two specific areas,
âMen are designed to Fight and Fornicateâ
Then you have no-one to complain to but your mother, her Mother, her Mother , her Mother⌠etc - ad infinitum for the last 5 million years !
"It reminds me of the Conference of Melos during the Peloponnesian War. The Melians had been defeated in battle by the Athenians. In the conference after their defeat they appealed to the honor and justice of the Athenians in their surrender. The leader of the Athenian forces, Alcibiades, responded to their plea with one phrase,
â The strong do what they will while the weak do what they must.â
The Athenians slaughtered all the men and took all the women and children as slaves. They colonized Melos themselves and the Melian civilization ceased to exist. "
âThe American Wild Trekking Company - Iron Clad Boots and Silk Slippersâ
That is (or was) perfectly normal among tribes - the women chose the best fighters as their âhusbandsâ then if the "Husband got killed, female hypergamy and pragmatism sets in and they happily transfer their allegiance to his killers
In fact the CCP currently hold Ouighur Muslem men in concentration camps - and their wives are allocated to Chinese men - whom they bond with and continue with as ânew husbandsâ
Note also the Film âThe Last Samuriâ
As for âSlaveryâ - Yes the Romans had slaves (Almost universally WHITE ) as did the Christians, Muslems and Jews plus all the African tribes and the American Indians ! - to learn about the âSlavery Argumentâ in 55 seconds - go here !
.
âStefan Molyneux DESTROYS the slavery argument - YouTubeâ
But you would probably prefer to hear the truthabout the whole history of slavery ;
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âThe Truth About Slavery Past Present and Future original video by Stefan Moleneux - YouTubeâ
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Has the Chinese govt stepped in yet? I thought I heard something about some consortium of 100 companies all taking an equity stake, along with the govt?
Real estate in China is something like 15-20% of GDP. They wonât let this get out of control.
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