rant · moment 14 of 14

America's Military-Backed Economy Is a House of Cards

from Not A Legal Expert · #106

Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.

3 min

Ray closes his rant arguing the entire US economy and dollar dominance is propped up by military force, and that Trump undermining NATO alliances threatens the only thing actually holding the fading empire together.

In this bit7 moments
  • 56:25Tim on political organization: people expecting things to get better is delusional, regardless of who's in office.
  • 56:48Every dominant culture eventually falls — the Dutch ran global trade and now nobody cares about them.
  • 57:14Post-war America only seemed prosperous because of juke economics and screwing over other countries.
  • 57:47The entire US economy is built on military power — the dollar is the world's de facto currency because it's backed by US military force.
  • 58:20Trump's demand that NATO members pay their bills misses the point: other countries need to need America.
  • 58:46The deal is simple: Americans get cheap consumer goods and the US gets to project military power globally.
  • 59:00Tim argues Trump is disrupting this arrangement for the wrong reasons and will make things worse.

All 14 moments in this episode →