Why I am obsessed with China

Blackflag: Some. Quite limited. Standard of living in general is hard to measure but seems quite the focus of modern economics.

Blackflag: 300 million compared to 1.3 billion? Please.

admin: But it'd be a more extreme version of U.S. hegemony. I mean, the U.S. was only dominant because the world let it be. If the U.S. went crazy, it could be "taken out" by the international community. China in this situation would be much more difficult for even a united world to defeat.

admin: I talk about standard of living because it's very heavily connected to income.

I'm not saying the U.S. isn't a potential threat either. I do think we should be taken down a notch, but not while China's standing in line to take our place.

Dassault Papillon: Our GDP PPP per capita is better than China and our GDP nominal is better than China, but that means nothing if our military is not better than China. The problem, like the Soviets once had, is that our military surpasses sustainability, at least if we want to maintain quality troops and not a large conscripted militia like China has.

Collective security organizations like NATO are in our best intrests, but the program needs to be expanded to our asian allies such as Australia.

Blackflag: And with the recent hack, they may have gotten their hands on military designs and research data, meaning they could soon have all the technology we have. There's no way we can just leave China alone now.

Collective security organizations like NATO are in our best intrests, but the program needs to be expanded to our asian allies such as Australia.

Blackflag: Australia and Japan should definitely join NATO. The only problem is that it's called the NORTH ATLANTIC Treaty Organization.

I also think Mexico would make a good NATO member. It'd force a bunch of nations to get involved in Mexico's drug war, but that's just about the only drawback I can think of (and getting involved might slightly help deal with America's drug problem).

Dassault Papillon: That was thrown out the table the moment we told Georgia they could join

Dassault Papillon: No, Mexico wouldn't join because they are a core member of the neutrality sphere. A shame too, because they have an advanced military full of veterans who have actually seen combat within the last decade. It would be a chance to get the support they need to fight their cartels though.

Dassault Papillon: I think the planet would be taken out long before the US is taken out in the event of a global war.

admin: You'd think wrong then. Swag is correct. The hegemony of the US is only maintained because other nations allow us to maintain it. In reality we are weak without are allies, economically and militarily.

*our