Have We Passed the Golden Age of Western Economic Dominance?

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   janessecretposted 13 years ago

   With the huge growth in the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil etc will the traditional economic superpowers of Europe and the USA suffer? This is not as simple as it might seem. Consider the wane of Britain's world dominance at the end of the industrial revolution and yet the nation still enjoyed massive economic growth for many years after its dominance declined.
   
   The growth of the new economies will certainly have some effect of the old powers, the real question is will that be a negative or a positive effect? Is the future of the West dark and riddled with doubt or bright and shot through with economic possibilty?
   
   J

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      Peter-Jan Celisposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Your neighbor becoming more productive is a net benefit to you due to increased potential for trade = more voluntary mutual improvements of welfare. Same goes for countries. So yes the West is going down relatively and the East is rising. IMO the West will mimick China in a few decades when democracy has spent all wealth on its biggest voters block: the babyboomers. By than the children of the Chinese are the lazy ones and we can try a comeback.

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   secularist10posted 13 years ago

   It's interesting to phrase it in terms of "western economic dominance" because in many ways, China and India (non-western societies) are actually benefiting directly from western economic theories and models and paradigms. The student is becoming the master, as it were.
   
   For a long time the western nations were able to dominate the non-western nations because they had a superior socioeconomic approach. However, now that that approach has gone global, and everyone is recognizing its benefits, the west is becoming just another player in the larger milieu.
   
   Whatever it says about western dominance, these are good things for humanity (a large plurality of which is contained in China and India). But the western countries (and especially the United States) would be foolish to dramatically think "this is the end."
   
   The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, France and England all ruled the world at one time or another. Each was the preeminent power on the earth at one time. Now that they are not the preeminent power, have any of them declined into the dark ages? No, in fact their prosperity continues to rise as that of the world rises.

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