Why business is more powerful than military might
Consider:
America, the most powerful country in the world. It's army of talented business people is more powerful than its military
Calvin Coolidge famously said "The business of America is business." America's greater strength is not its military might, it's greater strength is its army of business people and its natural resources.
Behold, the strength of America's business people in the essays below:
- The United States will be the leading power in the world for the foreseeable future
- The USA is more innovative and productive than China and Russia
- The USA has one of the highest labor productivity rates in the world - significantly higher than both China and Russia
- The USA is more innovative and productive than China and Russia
- Why the corrupt, authoritarian regimes of China and Russia are losing their long term competitive edge relative to the USA
- Is the USA an economic powerhouse and juggernaut?
- Isolationalism is growing in the United States. Is this a good thing?
- The USA is outproducing Russia and Saudi Arabia in oil production. The best is yet to come
- The USA can reduce its national debt. It has done it before
Military might is built on economic might - not vice versa
John Mearsheimer, is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of international relations and teaches at the University of Chicago.
In his 2023 interview with the South China Morning Post, Professor John Joseph Mearsheimer stated about U.S. relations with China and Russia:
“ | The Americans have a vested interest in pivoting full force to East Asia, to contain China. The Americans view China as a more serious threat than Russia. It’s very important to understand that China is a peer competitor to the United States. China is a rising great power and is a threat to the US in ways that Russia is not. So the Americans have a vested interest in not getting bogged down in a war in eastern Europe, more specifically in Ukraine.
Furthermore, they have a vested interest in doing everything they can to make sure that Russia and China are not close allies. What happens as a result of the Ukraine war is that it’s almost impossible for the US to fully pivot in Asia.[1] |
” |
In his March 2022 interview with The New Yorker, Mearsheimer indicated:
“ | I’m talking about the raw-power potential of Russia—the amount of economic might it has. Military might is built on economic might. You need an economic foundation to build a really powerful military. To go out and conquer countries like Ukraine and the Baltic states and to re-create the former Soviet Union or re-create the former Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe would require a massive army, and that would require an economic foundation that contemporary Russia does not come close to having. There is no reason to fear that Russia is going to be a regional hegemony in Europe. Russia is not a serious threat to the United States. We do face a serious threat in the international system. We face a peer competitor. And that’s China. Our policy in Eastern Europe is undermining our ability to deal with the most dangerous threat that we face today.[2] | ” |
In 2016, Mearsheimer said: "Russia was a declining great power."[3]
Apple's market cap is larger than all but 6 of world's top economies
- Apple's market cap is larger than all but 6 of world's top economies, Yahoo Finance, 2023
A majority of the 100 most valuable brands were based in the United States, with a combined value of $3.2 trillion
In 2024, a majority of the 100 most valuable brands were based in the United States, with a combined value of $3.2 trillion.[4]
Fourth generation warfare is the bane of countries than "win" costly wars. Post-war insurgencies and terrorism are real and significant problems
Fourth-generation warfare (4GW) is a conflict in which there is a blurring of the separation between war and politics and combatants/civilians. 4GW wars are more decentralized in terms of their command and control.
The term fourth-generation warfare was initially used in 1980 by a team of United States analysts, including the author William S. Lind, to describe warfare's return to a decentralized expression of conflict.[5]
Journal articles
- Tracing the Tenets of Fourth Generation Warfare in Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: The Case of al Qaeda, India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs. Volume 66, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/097492841006600203
Related articles
- Fourth generation warfare, The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
- The Canon and Four Generations of Warfare, Australian Army Research Center
Winning a war vs. winning the peace. There is a difference. Peace usually last longer than wars so it's essential to win the peace. Winning the peace requires business people
A nation can lose a war or proxy war, yet win the peace. At the present time, the USA has better relations with Vietnam than China - despite the Vietnam War. Vietnam, one of the countries with the most favorable public opinion regarding the U.S., is the only communist country to have such a favorable view.[6]
In September 2023, US President Joe Biden visited Vietnam. Hosted by the Secretary-General of the Communist Party, Vietnam’s most senior official, the two countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership. This marks the latest stage in an extraordinary turnaround in relations between two countries that once fought a bitter and brutal war. But how did it develop? And what lies behind this change? See: VIETNAM | America's New Ally?.
So what does this "comprehensive strategic partnership" mainly entail? It mainly consists of business and economic interests of course.
The talent war in our technological age where innovation is important. Company recruiters are more powerful than military recruiters
See also: Top 12 reasons why people are flocking to the USA and leaving the corrupt, authoritarian countries of China and Russia and Size of a working age population in a country and its correlation with national GNP in advanced economies. The ability of the United States to attract some of the best and brightest workers in the world
The ability of the United State to attract some of the best and brightest workers in the world:
See also: Essay: Does the United States need more immigration?
In the modern world, immigration policies are a part of great power competition.[7] For example, many Jewish scientists who fled Nazi Germany worked on the Manhattan Project.[8]
The Baltimore Sun's article Many of America's best and brightest are immigrants indicates:
“ | Of the six Nobel Prize winners in America in 2016, all six were immigrants. Indeed, more than one-third of U.S. Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, medicine, and physics have been immigrants. Since 1960, 23 immigrants won Nobel Prizes in chemistry, 20 in medicine and 21 in physics. These are amazing statistics that should not be ignored.
Clearly, immigration and public education are what make America great. Most people coming to this country cannot afford to send their children to private schools. To be sure, most immigrants come here not only to flee oppression but also for the free and quality education our public schools have long provided.[9] |
” |
The article Attracting (and Keeping) the Best and the Brightest states: "We can clearly see the benefits of skilled immigration in cities such as Pittsburgh, which have transformed their declining steel economies to those driven primarily by research and development (R&D) as well as entrepreneurship in the fields of artificial intelligence and the life sciences. International students make up approximately 50% of the Carnegie Mellon University students seeking to launch a startup company in Pittsburgh... Just a decade ago, the economist William R. Kerr documented that between 2000 and 2010 more international inventors immigrated to the United States than to the rest of the world combined."[10]
In addition, the article Attracting (and Keeping) the Best and the Brightest points out the recently the United States has "made an important change by reestablishing the nascent International Entrepreneur Rule for prospective founders who can secure at least $250,000 in investment from a qualified US investor. The program allows a renewable two-and-a-half-year period for entrepreneurs to try building a business in the United States, with the ultimate goal being permanent residence via a transition to a Green Card." [11]
Manjari Chatterjee Miller notes: "The history of Indian immigration to the United States dates back to the nineteenth century. Up until World War II, Indian immigrants were mostly low-skilled migrant workers. This pattern changed by the mid-twentieth century, when Indians flocked to the United States to study or work white-collar jobs. In India, this phenomenon was often dubbed the “brain drain,” as India’s best and brightest left to settle in the United States. Today, Indians constitute the second-largest immigrant group in the United States after Mexicans, and the highest-earning ethnic group in the country."[12]
In 2023, The South China Morning Post's article China’s millionaires keep leaving, but now outflows may be ‘more damaging than usual’ states:
“ | Advisory firm Henley & Partners estimates that mainland China will lose 13,500 high-net-worth individuals – those with investable wealth totalling more than US$1 million – followed by India’s 6,500. The UK, in third, will lose 3,200 such individuals, predicts the London-based investment migration consultancy.
In 2022, China lost 10,800 high-net-worth individuals, followed by Russia’s 8,500 and India’s 7,500, according to data in the “Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2023” released on Tuesday... The US’ start-up and employment visa programmes, including “national interest waivers” (NIWs) under the green-card application process, are also popular among Chinese tech, medical and academic professionals and researchers, especially those impacted by the downturn in China’s tech sector, Liu said. “They pay attention to opportunities for skilled immigration from Singapore and the United States,” Liu explained...[13] |
” |
Rapid development of new forms of modern technology and its effect on the world and its societies
See also: Change management and Future Shock and United States and innovation
The Amazon description of the book The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics and Society:
“ | A bold exploration and call-to-arms over the widening gap between AI, automation, and big data—and our ability to deal with its effects
We are living in the first exponential age. High-tech innovations are created at dazzling speeds; technological forces we barely understand remake our homes and workplaces; centuries-old tenets of politics and economics are upturned by new technologies. It all points to a world that is getting faster at a dizzying pace. Azeem Azhar, renowned technology analyst and host of the Exponential View podcast, offers a revelatory new model for understanding how technology is evolving so fast, and why it fundamentally alters the world. He roots his analysis in the idea of an “exponential gap” in which technological developments rapidly outpace our society’s ability to catch up. Azhar shows that this divide explains many problems of our time—from political polarization to ballooning inequality to unchecked corporate power. With stunning clarity of vision, he delves into how the exponential gap is a near-inevitable consequence of the rise of AI, automation, and other exponential technologies, like renewable energy, 3D printing, and synthetic biology, which loom over the horizon. And he offers a set of policy solutions that can prevent the growing exponential gap from fragmenting, weakening, or even destroying our societies. The result is a wholly new way to think about technology, one that will transform our understanding of the economy, politics, and the future.[14] |
” |
Wars kill a nation's citizens. Size of a working age population in a country and its correlation with national GNP in advanced economies
“One of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birth rate and rapidly declining birthrate.” - Elon Musk[16]
"There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who believe the defining challenge of the 21st century will be climate change, and those who know that it will be the birth dearth, the population bust, the old age of the world." - Ross Douthat, token conservative at the New York Times.[17]
Wars are costly in terms of a country's human capital. And many countries have below replacement fertility levels in their nation. See: Essay: The coming demographic winter
Examples of excellent articles/documentaries/videos on an impending demographic winter in the world:
- Stephen J Shaw: The surprising truth about world fertility rates, TRT World video
- Demographic Winter - the decline of the human family - Film documentary
In advanced economies, there is a high correlation between the size of a country's working-age population and its national gross national product (GNP)
In advanced economies, there is a high correlation between the size of a country's working-age population and its national gross national product (GNP).[18]
The abstract for the 2023 academic paper The Wealth of Working Nations published by Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania by Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Gustavo Ventura, and Wen Yao indicates:
“ | Due to population aging, GDP growth per capita and GDP growth per working-age adult have become quite different among many advanced economies over the last several decades. Countries whose GDP growth per capita performance has been lackluster, like Japan, have done surprisingly well in terms of GDP growth per working-age adult. Indeed, from 1998 to 2019, Japan has grown slightly faster than the U.S. in terms of per working-age adult: an accumulated 31.9% vs. 29.5%. Furthermore, many advanced economies appear to be on parallel balanced growth trajectories in terms of working-age adults despite important differences in levels. Motivated by this observation, we calibrate a standard neoclassical growth model in which the growth of the working-age adult population varies in line with the data for each economy. Despite the underlying demographic differences, the calibrated model tracks output per working-age adult in most economies of our sample. Our results imply that the growth behavior of mature, aging economies is not puzzling from a theoretical perspective.[19] | ” |
Business is more powerful than military might. Graphs built on a great wealth of compelling data don't lie!
Russia is dying out. The war in Ukraine is making Russia's demographic crisis even worse
See: Russia is dying out. The war in Ukraine is making Russia's demographic crisis even worse
Vladimir Putin's foolish decision to launch an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
Nuclear bomb saber-rattling by drunk government officials is not impressive - ever!
See: Doomsday phobias - including nucleomituphobia caused by Russian threats to use a nuclear bomb
In 2023, Russia had the second highest alcoholism rate in the world as far as it being a problem with both genders.[41] In addition, in 2023 Russia had the highest alcoholism rate for males.[42] In 2019, it was reported that every year 500,000 people die due to alcohol in Russia.[43]
The New York Post reported on June 14, 2023:
“ | Vladimir Putin’s stressed-out Kremlin staffers — along with prominent politicians, governors and members of Russia’s elite — have been hitting the bottle harder than ever since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to a new report.
The independent Russian-language news website Verstka reported, citing interviews with multiple sources within Russia’s political and business circles, that alcoholism has become increasingly commonplace among Putin’s cronies. “Let’s put in this way: Previously, not everyone within the president’s administration would start the day with a glass of vodka,” one person familiar with the matter told the outlet. “Now, I know many more people who do, and for some, a glass has turned into a bottle.” Even some of the most senior officials are not immune to alcohol addiction: Verstka reported that former president Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of the Security Council, often writes his saber-rattling Telegram posts threatening the West with nuclear annihilation while deep in his cups.[44] |
” |
On June 14, 2023, The Daily Mail reported in a story entitled Vladimir Putin's administration staff 'are starting the day with a bottle of vodka' and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is 'often drunk when he writes his apocalyptic threats of nuclear war':
“ | That's according to the exiled Russian newspaper Verstka, which has spoken to several sources close to the administration.
The newspaper reports that consumption among Putin's closest associates has increased sharply since the invasion of Ukraine. 'Not everyone in the presidential administration started the day with a glass of vodka earlier,' one source told the newspaper. 'Now I know many more who do it, and with some the glass has become a bottle.' Sources also claim Dmitry Medvedev, currently the deputy head of the country's security council, is drinking excessively.[45] |
” |
References
- ↑ The West needs to prepare for ‘ugly’ Russian victory in Ukraine, which will reward China, leading US political scientist warns, South China Morning Post
- ↑ Why John Mearsheimer Blames the U.S. for the Crisis in Ukraine, The New Yorker, March 2022
- ↑ Why is Ukraine the West's Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer
- ↑ The 100 Top Brands in the World, Visual Capitalist
- ↑ Fourth generation warfare, The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
- ↑ Global image of countries. US Global Image, Pew Research
- ↑ Battling for the best and brightest: immigration, great power rivalry, and the history of talent importation
- ↑ 'Oppenheimer': How Jewish refugees beat the Nazis to the atomic bomb - opinion, Jerusalem Post, 2023
- ↑ Many of America's best and brightest are immigrants, Baltimore Sun, 2017
- ↑ Attracting (and Keeping) the Best and the Brightest
- ↑ Attracting (and Keeping) the Best and the Brightest
- ↑ To Compete With China, the United States Needs to Fix Immigration, 2023
- ↑ China’s millionaires keep leaving, but now outflows may be ‘more damaging than usual’, The South China Morning Post, 2023
- ↑ [https://www.amazon.com/Exponential-Age-Accelerating-Technology-Transforming/dp/1635769094 The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics and Society
- ↑ Demographic winter: The plague of the century, Washington Times, 2021
- ↑ Demographic winter: The plague of the century, Washington Times, 2021
- ↑ Which is more frightening: global warming or demographic winter? by LOUIS T. MARCH
- ↑ The Wealth of Working Nations by Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Gustavo Ventura, and Wen Yao, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2023
- ↑ The Wealth of Working Nations by Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Gustavo Ventura, and Wen Yao, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2023
- ↑ Trump to West Point grads: 'We are ending the era of endless wars', Reuters, June 13, 2022
- ↑ Trump to West Point grads: 'We are ending the era of endless wars', Reuters, June 13, 2022
- ↑ 15 Strongest Currencies in the World in 2024, Yahoo Finance, January 2024.
- ↑ Top 10 Strongest Currencies In The World In April 2024, Forbes, April 2024
- ↑ Should You Be Bullish on America?
- ↑ Labor Productivity: What It Is, How to Calculate & Improve It, Investopedia
- ↑ 25 Most Productive Countries Per Capita, Yahoo Finance
- ↑ Most Productive Countries 2024
- ↑ The U.S. Is (Again) Among the World's Top Innovators, U.S. News and World Report, 2023
- ↑ Global Innovation Index 2023: Switzerland, Sweden and the U.S. lead the Global Innovation Ranking; Innovation Robust but Startup Funding Increasingly Uncertain
- ↑ World's Most Innovative Countries, Statista website, 2023
- ↑ Countries With The Most Diverse Economies
- ↑ US Oil Production Hits Records
- ↑ Donald Trump promises to drill for oil, close southern border on first day as president
- ↑ The Oil And Gas Workers’ Association Endorses Trump For 2024 Vote
- ↑ U.S. production of petroleum and other liquids to be driven by international demand
- ↑ China Slowdown Means It May Never Overtake US Economy, Forecast Shows, Bloomberg News, September 5, 2023
- ↑ What’s going on with China’s stock market?, MarketPlace.org
- ↑ Russia’s population is in a historic decline as emigration, war and a plunging birth rate form a ‘perfect storm’, Fortune magazine, 2022
- ↑ Alcoholism by country
- ↑ Alcoholism by country
- ↑ Alcoholism by country
- ↑ Alcoholism by country
- ↑ Demographic crisis in Russia
- ↑ Putin’s ‘stressed’ administration staff start each day with bottle of vodka: report, The New York Post, June 14, 2023
- ↑ Vladimir Putin's administration staff 'are starting the day with a bottle of vodka' and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is 'often drunk when he writes his apocalyptic threats of nuclear war', Daily Mail, June 14, 2023