Fred said:
Its almost a strength so to speak. What other country in the world has a luxury of being so self sufficient, so contained and so enjoyable that a decent percentage of the populace feels no need to learn or go elsewhere.
That's a huge misconception. The USA ist _not_ self sufficient. The USA has trade deficit of 450 billion USD. What does that mean? It means that the USA consumes more goods and services than it can produce. That's not self-sufficient by any means. Basically, the world pays the US money so the US can buy their goods. Another way to look at it, if you enjoy some good irony, would be that the world indirectly pays America's military budget. This completely idiotic concept might collapse sooner or later, if several factors come together.
For almost a decade now, the USA sustained itself by leeching a huge share of other countries' wealth (along with much intellectual talent but that's a different topic) . The USA is utterly reliant on its "productive" satellites in Europe and Asia. Those productive satellites finance American consumerism. If the money/goods stream of ~1.5b USD per day was cut off, the current economical/financial system of the USA would collaps immediately.
France, UK, Germany, Japan etc. on the other hand still have the productive base to sustain themselves. If the current US-centric economic system collapsed, those countries would lose a big chunk of their export market and that would hurt... badly. Yet, they would still produce enough goods to consume or trade to sustain themselves.
The USA simply does not have the industrial base to sustain itself anymore. It would take years for the USA to return to a positive or neutral trade balance. There was never at time in history in which the USA was more reliant on other countries. Up until the 70s the USA dominated global exports and now it dominates global imports. A true 180° turn.
What happened? The USA switched from a "normal" economy to something we could refer to as "imperial economy". Throughout history, there are only a view instances in which powerful countries had a economical set-up similar to the USA today. And all of these instances were empires. E.g. Ancient Athens which dominated Asia Minor, the Roman Empire, the Aztec Empire, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire (for a short time) and the 12 years of the Nazi-German "1000 year empire", in which Germany sustained herself by looting pretty much all of Europe.
All those empires, at one point, had their economies turn from self sufficiency to reliancy on their hegemonical territories. This was achieved by either conquest and direct exploitation or by military dominance and vassalage or by somehow motivating their satellites to pay tribute voluntarily, like Athens did when it was the protective power in Asia Minor. The USA probably compares best to Athens which really isn't too bad. While Athens relied on direct tribute the USA gains its "tribute" through the global financial system und like back when Athens ruled, the satellites give it voluntarily. But there are signs that the USA is slowly turning "Roman".
What's probably most significant about this realization is that empires that reached that state were all soon to fall. At one point, Athens satellites refused to pay tribute anymore even though they did it voluntarily for a long time. We do not know the reasons why this happened but we know the result: Athens's power declined. And there is a very realistic chance that the same thing will happen to the USA in the next, say, three decades.
That's why the USA is acting like it is in geopolitics. If the current system is to continue to exist, the USA has to make sure it's position as a super power persists. All depends on that. The USA has to convince the world that it is the gravitational center of the world even though the USA is just a geographically remote country, far away from the true geographical center of the world, Eurasia, where by far the biggest part of humankind and economical production exists. The USA have to constantly prove that they are still significant. That's why the USA overblow totally powerless and insignificant enemies like Iraq and then wage war against them. That's why the USA shows off it's unilaterist muscles at every opportunity. It's not about oil, it's about America's position at the head of the pack. The USA depends on being the gravitational center or the flow of foreign capital which sustains the USA might dwindle.
If that happened, the American system would collapse. Of course, the USA still has a huge industrial base, intellectual talent etc. but the standard of living, the federal budget etc. would fall significantly. The USA would be forced to give up its foreign military bases, stop to be a superpower and settle with a significantly lower standard of living. The USA would become a "normal" country, albeit a powerful one.
