Niall Ferguson is one the most distinguished historians of the current century. King Charles III recently knighted him. We’re All Soviets Now is an article by him in which he notes the similarities between the late Soviet Union and current America. You can peruse his article and make your own judgment about the validity of his argument. I’ll just list a few of his points.
- Our leaders, both once and future are very old.
- Our national spending is beyond our means
- We have a bloated military that is likely cannot meet its assigned tasks
- We are seemingly inexorably committed to spending more on debt service than on defense
- The public has little confidence in our political institutions
- Younger Americans are in the grasp of ill mental health
- Life expectancy has declined in the last decade
- US healthcare has descended into a dysfunctional conglomeration of rent seekers
- The political and cultural elites espouse a bizarre ideology no one really believes
- These elites have separated themselves from those who do most of the work
- US foreign policy is designed to get others to fight our wars
- Government policies designed to help poor minorities do little save create hordes of apparatchiks
- Government attempts to fight climate change are based on emotions rather than science
- A legal system that is corrupt and employed to punish political opponents
There’s a lot more. Judge for yourself the validity of Ferguson’s arguments and conclusions. Ignore them regardless of your belief in their validity at your and the nation’s peril.
He’s brilliant. Not sure if being knighted is a honor that represents to seek unbiased truths, but a price to write history that barks in favor for his own empire.