Bryan McGrath...Is it time for the US to retire?

 

Which brings me to an interesting chat I had with a friend of mine recently. If I've shared this already, pay me no mind, I am rapidly addling. He and I are buddies from college and the Navy, and we were shooting the breeze a few weeks ago. I told him that I was beginning to https://t.co/h7mfTNDL79

— Bryan McGrath (@ConsWahoo) February 4, 2021

Do a small bit of work and click to read his entire thread.  For the lame and lazy he recounts a trip to Austria and walking thru Vienna and seeing the wonderful infrastructure and happy people and recalling that Austria was once a great power and retired gracefully.

He then asks the question.  Is it time for the US to retire.

I really don't know.

What happens if we're not the world's superpower?  Will our standard of living go up?  It seems to me that we're subsidizing many countries defense budgets with our own.  We have a large military that is built not for our defense but the defense of others.  We have trade practices that are designed to enhance our power, not necessarily our balance sheets.

Is it such a crazy question to ask?