Interesting results so far. At the moment, it looks like world dominance by some super MegaCorp has a narrow lead over the United States, with China in distant third and everybody else pretty much relegated to the ash-heap of history.GrandMasterTerwynn wrote:In today's world, the preeminent global power seems to be the US of A. Americans may be hated, but many know that it isn't afraid to bring out it's big stick to keep people in line, and the American Dolllar seems to be the defacto world currency.
But, for today's poll, I will ask you to look ahead, say a hundred years or maybe even two hundred years. The question is simple. Which nation or region of the world will be wielding the biggest, baddest stick in a century? Will it be the old favorites, will it be someone new? Or will it be a one-world government like the UN, or will our fates be controlled by gigantic supercorporations? Or maybe it might even be "The warlord with the most swords" in an post-apocalypse wasteland. Give reasons for your answer.
While the United States seems like a good choice, as some have pointed out, it's moving slowly and steadily towards a socialist totalitarian police state.
China seems to be a good strong choice. They have a burgeoning space program and are embracing the capitalist ideal more and more firmly.
Europe seems to have moved beyond capitalism and imperialism. Though that's not saying that it could change in the next century.
Very few people picked the United Nations.
Nobody picked Africa. Hardly surprising. The population is killing itself off with AIDS, other diseases, and much petty warfare. Parts of it could be useful for launching a concentrated space infrastructure, but it isn't likely to be the Africans doing it.
Nobody picked the Middle East either. Eventually the oil will run out, and I suppose people believe that it will probably start the 22nd century as one big radioactive glass-paved parking lot.
Nobody picked South America either. There is a lot of developing capitalism and know-how in that region of the world. However, they'd have quite a ways to go before achieving any sort of global dominance. maybe another century.
What is interesting is that people chose global megacorporations to rule the world in a century. While it seems like capitalism is alive and well, the world seems to be moving in a socialist direction. For example, in the United States, there is almost no such thing as a big airline that does well. Eventually they'll have to be nationalized (as if they aren't already. The only reason the stay in business is obscene government handouts.)
Though, I suppose, there are plenty of places in the world where megacorporations could secure their grip on the planet (for example, all the places nobody voted for.)
(Thread bump.)
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