Why is the western world declining?

[Olleus]

Are we talking about wealth or income? Very different things...

 

[Hrothbern]

No, it is more like feudal-Europe levels. There is no precedent in US history for the levels of inequality we are seeing today. The Gilded Age was actually far more egalitarian.

I wonder in how far the manufacturing knowledge distribution played a role there in the later medieval period.

We have now for the bulk of our basic needs very mature manufacturing chains where most of the needed knowledge is integrated in the machinery, the recipes/programs, the expeert systems.
In the late medieval period most of the manufacturing knowledge, the craftmanship, was in the human labor.
Which delivered such a power to the craftsmen, and their guilds, that the land/peasant power structure eroded in overall importance, and nobility had to give more and more freedoms to those citizens.

In todays world employees working in higher employee knowledge sectors, up to innovative edge do earn much more than operators of mature machinery (people feeding machines or in logistics, the junk labor, getting junk wages).
Reducing the power of the bulk of the employees to a consumers and voters power, but no longer essential elements in the manufacturing (or services) based on their needed knowledge.

This is an ongoing process with future AI, robotising and mechanisation.
Capital more an intermediate medium.

 

[Lexicus]

Are we talking about wealth or income? Very different things...

I'm talking about both.

 

[Kyriakos]

The main reason of decline may not be population itself; Europe always had far less people than Asia, for that matter. I wouldn't really say the reason is mass immigration from Asia (islamic countries) either. A major, in my view, cause of some decline is that there is huge polarization, leading to actual provincialism.
That said, there is no lack of signs that a large war is not far away. Probably in the middle east, with european countries getting involved too.

Re US hegemony of 'the west', that was bound to end sometime. The US is simply way too far away from Europe, to be the center for any longer.

 

[john1565]

Everything has a life cycle, even product has Product Life Cycle. However, that does not necessarily mean that there is no other way for western society. I strongly believe the situation can be overcome.

 

[Yavid]

The cold war was surely the latest spike of "power" of the western world.
Two large power blocs that controlled or influenced vast parts of the world.
However, right now a certain decline is observable.

The "eastern bloc" has broken down and lost a lot of its former power. And
even the "western bloc" shows signs of internal conflicts & demographic
decline. Economic power is slowly shifting to China, and to a lesser extent
also south America is catching up.

So, why do you think that is? Is it the failure of certain ideologies (Eastern
bloc)? Internal conflicts? Or maybe you just think there is a "shift" in power
and not so much a decline?

IMO, it's a number of factors. First among them is the Cold War was never won. You win war by forcing the enemy to concede defeat. Russia never threw in the towel, America simply declared victory and as we saw in Iraq you can't declare mission accomplished and walk off the field. At the point of being the last remaining Super Power, America was put in a position it's never been put in before. It's power on the world stage had plateaued for we could not rise higher any longer. She (America) has not IMO been back sliding. It's a matter of everyone else is catching up to us, which was inevitable. Russia is seeking to re-estabish itself as a Super Power, China is trying to fill the vacuum left by the Soviet Union collapse. From how I see it, Western Civilization isn't declining as much as everyone else is playing catch up and the gab between the us and them is closing so it feels like a decline. And in the current policty situation when in Russia has begun attacking Western Democracies elections, US, UK, France and Germany's, We the Western Alliance face a situation in that if we do not check Russian advances in the area of cyber, We will loss our democracies. It is of my opinion we are at a tipping point right now. Either we check the Russian advance or the decline you speak of begins.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[innonimatu]

Really? I must check under my bed for hidden russians every night

 

[HoloDoc]

It's because of necros. The West is declining because of threads being necroed.

 

[Arakhor]

Moderator Action: Please don't horse around in old threads. Thank you.