Maybe It's Time To Start Learning Chinese

Well, folks, that's it. According to the International Monetary Fund, the era of America will end in just five years when the economy of China becomes the most dominant player on the world stage. American politicians will tell us that we are still #1, economists will tell us where we went wrong, even though we already know what the problem is, and the percentage of Americans who pay no taxes won't care as long as they still get what society owes them.

We can already see cracks forming in the once respected U.S. dollar and U.S. treasuries markets, but when we slide to #2 behind China, the world economy and the world's international security system will have a very different landscape than what we all have known through our lifetime.

According to the IMF, whoever wins the Presidential election in 2012 will be the last U.S. President to preside over the largest economy in the world. How are most Americans handling the news? The way that we always do. Instead of buckling down, making real changes, and addressing the problem, most of us will put our heads in the sand and tell ourselves that it won't make a difference in our lives, and the so-called experts are going to fuel that view by saying that the IMF figures are inaccurate and that we have at least a decade until this is going to happen.

According to a MarketWatch article, "Under PPP, the Chinese economy will expand from $11.2 trillion this year to $19 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile the U.S. economy will rise from $15.2 trillion to $18.8 trillion. That would take America’s share of the world output down to 17.7%, the lowest in modern times. China’s would reach 18%, and is rising."

While this is just a prediction, all signs point to the fact that the U.S. economy will no longer be #1 within our lifetime. America took over as top economic power in the world in the 1890s and unless you're pushing 120 years old right now, you have lived in a time when our nation was the #1 power on the world stage. Imagine what the world will be like when this is not the case. While we may have our ills, we have led the world with the very best of intentions. Do you think that China will do the same?
也許是時候開始學中文