"(Massive) consumer
demand" is certainly not the exclusive purview of the United States.
But the blithe assumption that "one way or the other, 'we' hold up the world, such that it could not possibly
exist without 'U.S.' holding it," just might be an excellent example of ... hubris.
The simple reality of currency ... particularly, of "world reserve" currency ... is that it fundamentally benefits the
seller, not the buyer. If you are purchasing something "from" someone, and especially when that "someone" has maneuvered itself to become the source of
most of the world's production, then it only stands to reason that:
"that someone,
not you," ought to be the party that's entitled to be paid directly in
their own currency.
When
The United States was the "top-dog," almost every other nation in the world had to ... well, as the saying goes, "if you're not the top dog, what you're looking at ahead of you is always the same."
It enjoyed "pre-eminent world-reserve currency" status ... because it had
earned it.
Uh huh. But then, the United States decided that it could
stop producing, shut down its capacity to produce, stop teaching its kids the skills necessary to produce things
(but grant them a diploma, anyway), and basically
mooch off of its status as "currency provider to the world."
"A status that it was thoroughly
accustomed to ...
b-u-t ... that it was no longer
entitled to."
It looked
so good on paper. And as long as
("pride goeth before the fall") the official attitude was ... "they'll never catch on, and if they do, there's nothing that anyone can
actually do about it" ... as long as Washington, DC was filled to the brim with "yes (wo)men" ... the last thirty years of American history looked wonderful, indeed. (Almost as good as, say, the "Roaring 20's," and for very similar reasons.)
But, you know, there are about 7
billion human beings on this planet, and the actual population of the USA only accounts for about 6 percent of them.
The relationship degraded until it could not be described as anything other than:
parasitic. "Cheating" the fundamental game of Commerce, and doing so
quite without apology. (Frankly, using it to finance becoming a rather-serious
military ...
threat. A "
very loose cannon" on the world stage.)
I quite frankly think that the very best lesson for the USA today would be for it to be
confronted(!) with: "you can't
own the game anymore. You
have to play it, along with the rest of us."
Because, I
know what the USA will do, as though it were waking-up from a very long and troubled sleep. It will reply to the challenge,
"American Style." And, in a remarkably small number of years, China will once again have
serious business competition. (As it
should have.)
(After all, why in the heck should I be shipping <<say,
socks>> 10,000 sea miles, when there's a company
thirty miles away that produces them?) Why, indeed. (Hell,
I remember when "made in Japan" was the butt of jokes.)
The turn-around point in every alcoholic's life is when he is compelled to stand in front of a group of people and say:
"I am an Alcoholic."
