VDH: Yes, America Looks Alot Like Ancient Rome

Victor Davis Hanson puts contemporary America in context to past great civilizations that self-destructed.  I don't think this is a prediction so much as a reflection.  A sad reflection by someone who knows history and is unsentimental about America's ability to avoid the fate that have befell all great powers.  It is definitely worth RTWT, but there are, of course, two salient features that resonated with me and that I have talked about before.

First, throughout time immemorial and across the globe, the dominant health problem for most of humanity has been malnutrition.  Of course, the dominant health problem of 21st century America is obesity.  Second, the workplace in 21st America has never been safer and medical care has never been better, but we have record numbers on disability.  We are both two fat and/or too corrupt to work.  If that isn't a sign of irretrievable decadence, the ilk that destines rich societies to decline, I don't know what is.

Again, not a prediction, but a reflection.