Decline? The Imminent Fall of the American Empire (2)

Published at: 09/10/2025 05:13 PM

After the Second World War, the United States remained the great hegemonic power. As the main capitalist country in the world, its production represented almost a third of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), however, today we see how that power is diminishing.

Also, its consumption pedestal rose exponentially, reaching a time when it became frenetic, profoundly exceeding its production capacity. Consuming more than is produced is unsustainable. According to figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), with only 4% of the world's population, today it consumes a quarter of the world's wealth. This asymmetric situation contains the germ of what it is now suffering; the country was basing its prosperity on an artificial measure: it made the world economy depend on its currency, the dollar. This hyperconsumption generated an unpayable debt, which requires that it be financed by the rest of the countries, which it dominates militarily with 800 bases installed on the planet.

Marcelo Colussi , writer and political scientist of Argentine origin, wrote in his research called The Decline of the United States that “today the most developed power on the planet at all levels: economically, scientific-technical, culturally and militarily, slowly but inexorably begins its decline. He's not defeated, far from it. On the contrary: he will do his best to prevent his fall, which is why this moment in history is very dangerous.”

Colussi explained in his research that “American arrogance also grew unparalleled, which made him feel the bearer of a supposed manifest destiny, a nation responsible for carrying freedom and democracy to the ends of the planet. Shameless hypocrisy. The ruling class of that power felt capable of operating anywhere in the world as if it were their own home, stealing, looting, massacring, imposing their will. The so-called Monroe Doctrine, of 1823, reveals it: America for Americans, which can be understood as the entire American continent, from Alaska to Patagonia, for the benefit of large American capital, without anyone daring to discuss it”.

Since the use of marketing to promote the image of a country, in 1964, Dichter, manager of the American advertising agency BBDO, one of the largest in the world, explained that “what makes this country great is the creation of needs and desires, the creation of dissatisfaction with the old and out of fashion”, expressed in a few words how capitalism works at its peak of development.

Now, the Doctor of Philosophy and Letters and Master in Economic History and Economic Policy Specialist in Economic and Political History, Leandro Morgenfeld in May 2025, did a work that explained how this supremacy is called into question; “what we see is the decline of the great power, slowly but irretrievably , has already begun. In any case, its ruling class, which feels that it owns and dominates the world, resists the fall. As a wounded animal, it will defend itself in any way, going to the most poisoned militaristic madness to try to maintain its privileges, being able to appeal to the monstrosity of a nuclear war. Donald Trump, with a western movie thug style, arrogant, abusive like the most, is in charge of seeking that return to a greatness that is fading away”.

Morgenfeld summarized that “the United States, until now the main economic and military power, although in a process of accelerating geopolitical decline, has been facing a series of interconnected crises in recent years that have weakened its economic and social structure. From the increase in poverty and indigence to the opioid epidemic, to the collapse of the public health system and massive student indebtedness, the country is experiencing a period of growing inequality and social discontent, the substratum that explains political and ideological-cultural polarization.”

On the other hand, the following data reflect structural challenges in the US, with persistent inequality and vulnerability in marginalized groups. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these trends, with millions of people losing their jobs and relying on temporary state aid that was later eliminated.

Still the world's leading economy, at least in nominal terms, the United States has levels of poverty more typical of a developing country. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2023, there are 38 million people, 11.5% of the total population of that country, living below the poverty line. Child poverty reaches 12.5% and affects 9 million children. Other studies, such as that of the National Center on Child Poverty, raise it to 16%, that is, 1 in 6 American minors lives in extreme poverty.

Also, income inequality continues to increase: the richest 1% own 32.3% of the national wealth, while the poorest 50% have only 2.6%, according to the Federal Reserve System, according to figures from 2023, there are currently 870 billionaires, but 63% of the population does not have enough savings to cover an unexpected expense of 500 dollars.

The United States remains the country with the most weapons per capita and one of the highest homicide rates in the developed world. In 2024, according to figures from the Gun Violence Archive, more than 41,037 deaths from firearms were recorded. Mass shootings (more than 530 in 2024) are a constant. Cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and St. Louis have higher homicide rates than countries at war.

The Gun Violence Archive detailed that “deaths from firearms broke an historic record in 2021. Since 2020, they have been the leading cause of death in children and adolescents between one and 19 years of age, above deaths from traffic accidents, cancer and drug overdoses or poisoning. For every million people between the ages of one and 19, there were 36.4 gun deaths in the United States, against 0.3 in Japan and 0.5 in the United Kingdom 0.5”. The death rate from firearms is 11.4 times higher in the United States than in 28 other high-income countries, making this issue a particularly American problem.

In fact, at the 2022 meeting of the Bilderbeg Group, held in Washington, the agenda that would be addressed was leaked: to maintain and encourage the use of weapons by the entire population. In other words : to avoid its fall, the great imperial country is willing to do anything, even to a permanent conflict within its streets, to normalize, in the face of a threat, the use of weapons of war with tactical atomic weapons.

The journalist, editor of the newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique, Benoit Breville, wrote an editorial in May of this year that called “Another protectionism is possible”, he explained that “for the United States, Latin America, it is their natural backyard according to the sadly famous Monroe Doctrine, and they maintain a narrative that assures that the countries of the region are ill, and second, without the prospect of immediate noticeable improvement, because Washington, like Superman, will defend that territory as its main bastion in the face of the advance of other alternatives, such as China and Russia, which are beginning to increasingly contest it for world hegemony”.

That is why the United States tries to control countries with more than 70 high-tech military bases and the Fourth Naval Fleet prowling the Caribbean and the South Atlantic, and a continuous and shameless meddling in their internal affairs. Let's be alert, the supposed control of drug trafficking is just a perverse ruse implemented in order to reinforce its meddling in sovereign countries.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team