Why is the US the most powerful nation in the world?

[Torsten]

OK, I figure this thread has the potential to be moved into the Controversial Topics section but I'd really like to hear your opinion on this: Inspite or maybe because of all the international conflicts the US is involved in, they still seem to be the single most powerful nation in the world and no matter how fast other economies and countries like China or India might be developing, I can't see how they can be able to gain as much influence as the US has. Why do you think that is? I mean, we've tried to discuss this topic before and it might be to big a question to answer in one single thread. There might be people who just don't agree with my statement that the US the "single most powerful nation" because this term would have to be defined first. If you like, I can give you my personal defintion of it and then we can explore this question hopefully based on facts rather than on opinions.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Torsten
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[Jamie (K)]

The reasons most often given for the US being the most powerful nation in the world are these:

-- Economic freedom. There are comparatively few restrictions on people using their time and talents for their own gain. This results in greater prosperity, which results in greater power in general.

-- Rule of law. I'll put it the way immigrants frequently explain it to me: "America is better, because here the law is stronger than any individual. In my country, there are individuals who are stronger than the law." While, in the US, a lot of money for the best lawyers can keep a person out of quite a bit of trouble, generally the legal system works, and it's very difficult for the rich and powerful to manipulate it. This means, for example, that it's basically impossible for a powerful person to confiscate someone's else's business (as happens in places like China or the Palestinian territory). The legal system will usually work in that little guy's favor if the big guy is wrong. There are places in the world where someone who wants a business can have the business's owner arrested, which doesn't happen here. The result of good rule of law is that Americans feel that following the law is the moral thing to do, even if they don't agree with it, unlike in many countries where the law is arbitrary and people see little or no relationship between law and morality.

-- Property rights. Your property is your property, and no powerful person's son, niece or whoever, can get it away from you. This means you can use property ownership in order to get credit, which means you can expand your business, employ more people, etc.

-- Very low corruption. Compared to other countries -- as many immigrants find out -- the level of corruption in the US is very low. It's very hard to bribe a policeman, government clerk or public official, and so the fate of your education, career or professional life does not depend on the ability to bribe people. This means that there's usually very little in people's way, when it comes to getting on with their lives. As in every country, there's some corruption here, but it's not enough to stop things from functioning well.

-- The US has a huge population, and an almost limitless talent pool. Look what can happen in smaller countries: The stock market, or some other institution becomes a complete mess, so the parliament appoints a committee to reform it. On this committee are generally most of the people who created the original mess. Sometimes this situation is due to corruption, but often it is due to a limited talent pool. In the US, there is such a large pool of talent that if one set of people can't do something right, there is always someone else who can.

-- The US population is diverse. One reason the European powers were able to colonize most of the world centuries ago was that they were open to ideas and technology from any source. It didn't matter what country or culture it came from. If something worked, they used it. So to some degree, the British and the Spanish were using Chinese and Arabic technology to take on the world. The US has this same openness to ideas and technology, and because the country attracts brilliant people from all over the world, we've got a continuous stream of innovation flowing in.

-- The US doesn't waste much talent. In many countries people are knocked out of the education system at age 13 or at age 18, and then they lack the means to improve their skills. As one Russian told me, "Some countries do a good job of educating an elite group of people to a very high level, but in the US, anyone who wants to can get more education than he could in those other countries." I hear it frequently from immigrants from various countries that in their homelands they were blocked by rules or even by corruption from getting more education or using their skills. They claim that the US allows them to develop themselves in a way that was made artificially impossible in their own countries. These people usually show great loyalty and gratitude to the US as a result -- more than native-born Americans show. Also, we don't waste the abilities of half our population -- women -- by locking them up at home with nothing to do.

-- The US has enormous natural resources.

-- The US has what used to be a relatively isolated, easily defended geographic position.

You'll notice that most of the reasons I cite are economic. That's because economic power leads to all the other kinds of power. All of these elements exist in other countries (for example, Germany is very good in terms of rule of law, low corruption and property rights, and China has enormous natural resources), but few countries have all of these elements. Some have property rights and rule of law, but they waste the talents of a lot of people, either by knocking out of the education system or by using socialism to make it possible for them not to work. Some countries have better education systems than the US, but their corruption is out of control, they waste the abilities of their women, and too much of their population is obsessed with making someone else's life worse, instead of making their own lives better.

[Torsten]

Hi Jamie,

Many thanks for posting such a concise yet comprehensive answer. It's better than any other explanation I have read on the subject so far because it pretty much covers every main reason why the US is in a leading position. As far as Germany is concerned, parts of our infrastructure might be even better than in the US and we actually might have a lower level of corruption and our crime rate most definitely is lower than in the US. However, as you have pointed out, the Germans have a tendency to waste talents and create systems that kill people's creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
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[Jamie (K)]

My opinions: Germany has a better infrastructure than most of the US. The people who do get an education in Germany are as well, and often better educated than Americans at the same level. Crime is low. The justice system is efficient and pretty clean. Corruption is probably less than in the US, although it's hard to say, because one characteristic of the American journalism is that it is constantly sniffing out corruption and trumpeting it to the world. In fact, some of the "corruption" they find turns out never to have happened or not to be corruption to begin with. Germany, however, has such comprehensive social benefits that some people lose their motivation to work. (The US had a situation like this for a long time also, but we reformed away from it.) And the labor laws can be so strict, and the tax laws so strange, that sometimes willing companies aren't allowed to hire willing workers, which means that (if I remember correctly) two-thirds of the Germans in the most experienced age bracket aren't working and using their skills.

But anyway, Germans are well off, in my opinion.

The countries it pains me to watch are the ones in which the dictator or the elites steal practically everything, mismanage the economy, waste the abilities of their populace, leaving most of them idle, and then publicly blame the whole problem on some other country or ethnic group, sometimes whipping their people into a genocidal rage. Whole generations of people have their lives wasted this way, and nations have gone from peace and prosperity to ruin.

[Che Gevara]

I'd say USA is the most powerful Country but not nation...
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[Jamie (K)]

[Che Gevara]

I mean people,culture,history,traditions e.t.c
Not 200 million weapons
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[Torsten]

Hi Che,

How can you separate a nation from its country? How can the US be the most powerful country but not the most powerful nation? If the Americans are not "the most powerful nation" (at this point we actually might try to define this term), who is?
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[Medeya2012]

Because of its well-organized economy they've achieved this position still keeping it firmly.
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[Englishuser]

Hi,

Are you sure the US is the most powerful nation in the world? The UK is also a very powerful nation.

EU

[Torsten]

Which leads us to the question how to define the term "most powerful nation in the world". Let's see, what nation has the most influence on world politics, which nation creates and promotes most innovations in technology, entertainment, science, personal development, etc.? For example, which country/nation was the first to understand and embrace the Internet? Do UK kids know more about the US than vice versa? Just an attempt...
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[Englishuser]

Hi Torsten,

What do you think of the Commonwealth?

EU

[Torsten]

I think its best days are over. It's just a part of history.
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[Jamie (K)]

[Jamie (K)]