What a wimpy, short-lived empire we were.

Pretty pathetic when compared to Alexander or Rome or Chinese dynasties or Great Britain.

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

Slave labor, yes... that seems to be the real key to lasting dynasty.

They had a choice to play by the New Deal NLRB rules or outsource their factories to third world serfdoms. In the end, they own neither the factories nor the workers, just a pocket full of credit default swaps.

:P

But then TeeVee came along and that began the spiral downward. Corporatists were already planning our demise while we sat complacently and watched "F Troop," "HeeHaw," and "Charlie's Angels," and drank orange juice which wasn't-really-orange-juice-but-tasted-like-orange-juice-and-we-should-drink-it-'cause-the-astronauts-drank-it, and ate bread that you could roll up into a ball but that was okay because it "built our bodies in 12 ways."

Oh, and don't forget the straws you could dip in a glass of milk and it would turn the milk into chocolate milk. All the while fearing Communism...

Yeah, they planned all this while we slept with our eyes wide open...

This is about average for most countries.

The Chinese better make hay while the sun shines.......