Is America an Empire? PT 2

In response to my earlier post Joe wrote:


"America is not an Empire in the traditional or historical sense. That is, they are not a colonial empire that occupies another country and exacts "tributes" in the form of taxation. However, I think the argument can be made that they are indeed an economic imperialist empire.

In the modern world there is no need to occupy foreign countries and collect taxes. All you need to do is get a control over the economies of those countries and manipulate them to your own ends.Sure we send our tax dollars there, but that is really an investment in "human capital". It doesn't hurt to have a military base or some other military presence near-by to protect your interests. You then overwork and underpay the people. Your return is much more than you could ever expect to collect from taxes, because you can take the fruits of the labor and turn around and sell them.

This is precisely why we are interested in the middle east. The whole Iraq, Afghanistan thing is all about protecting our oil, and making sure that someone else (Russia, China) doesn't get control of it. "

MY RESPONSE:
Great point! I do agree with some of the statement. But to say the U.S controls and manipulates foreign economies in the Middle East is a stretch. I am not so naïve that I believe the US is in the Middle East completely for altruistic reasons but rather looking out for our economic interests, but I think controlling and manipulating economies is going too far. I do believe that it is in the entire world’s interest (Russia, China, Etc..) to have stable governments in the oil rich regions.

I do not draw a connection between private foreign investments by American companies benefiting the government. To be clear, I do realize the business connections in Democratic and Republican administrations. The cabinet is usually a who’s who in the business world. The problem is the majority of our cheap labor high hour workweek is in China. The Labor is so cheap that companies that left America for Mexico after NAFTA, have left Mexico for China. Certainly, we are not controlling and manipulating their economy. Rather China is manipulating our economy and purchasing our debt.

I do understand our government has military bases strategically placed around the world. We have them throughout Europe and Asia. I believe we chose these sites not with economic imperialism in mind but rather for military reasons. It is easier to mobilize troops for combat in China if we have 30,000 in South Korea & about 45,000 in Japan. We did have bases in Saudi Arabia but I believe those were for stabilizing the world’s oil supply and keeping the oil out of extremists’ hands.

As for Iraq & Afghanistan, we definitely do want a foothold in the region because of China’s growing energy needs. This should definitely concern our leaders if not we as citizens would need to be concerned. But if there were no such thing as Islamic terrorism then we would not be in Iraq or Afghanistan. For example, many say the reason the violence in Africa is ignored is because they have no oil. I believe the reason no one gives a shit about the violence in Africa is because they internalize their violence while the Islamic radical externalize. If poor Africans were blowing up building across the globe, people would notice. It is not just about the oil. I also was unaware of companies lining up to open their businesses in Iraq, cheap labor or no cheap labor.