Global leaders have a responsibility to lead with the best interests of the global community in mind, whether they are governments or corporations. Looking forward to discovering mechanisms that can motivate them to do so profitably!

- Kimberly

I would like to add one other point. The relationship between countries is becoming less important. Consider the fact that there are 180 entities in the world that had revenues over $50B in 2007. Only 61 or those entities were countries, the other 119 were corporations.

Now obviously this could all change, but in 2008 it seems reasonable to presume that if the 20th century was about resolving national sovereignty and capitalism vs communism, then the 21st century will be about how to regulate supra-national entities.

I sure don’t expect China to easily rise to the #1 economy in the world with 800,000,000 peasant farmers. That’s a huge burden for them to overcome. And I don’t expect the US to sink into insignificance either. Like you, I look forward to the US being integrated into the global community. Personally, I will feel much safer when we are one of many healthy, thriving economies, and less known for “dominating” anything.

- Kimberly Wiefling

I’m interested by your take on the world becoming smaller. It certainly is. However, you seem to have been caught up in the current popular hysteria about the decline of the US. The facts simply don’t support this view.

The world is changing and America is becoming more integrated with the world. If you’re interested, there are two wonderful books you might consider reading on your international flights.

1. Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making by David Rothkopf

2. The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria

Wonderful and very enjoyable books.

As to the question of whether America is declining, please remember that America totally dominates space and the oceans with the most powerful navy the world has ever seen and for that matter has the most powerful military the world has ever seen. Also, the US economy is larger than the next three economies combined (Japan, Germany and China).

As to China’s rise, note that the US has a $14T economy with 300M people, while China has a $3.2T economy with 1.3B people. Also note that China is largely an exporting nation whose economy will surely contract significantly next year. China probably faces very significant problems next year also, but that’s a different story.

None of this is to say that the world isn’t changing, it certainly is. Hopefully America becomes massively more integrated and less isolated.

As for England being the wealthiest country in 1900, that is true. However, remember that since about 1880 or so, the US has been responsible for between 21 and 25% of the worlds GDP every single year. The only change to expect is that the US percentage will probably increase and Europe’s will decrease.

Hopefully this is helpful and thanks, I feel much better now…

Andy
http://alignmentinquiries.blogspot.com/