Comparing, and Contrasting The Fall of Rome to Today's world (ancient, Romans)

[Maryjoewanna]

What were the difference's, and like's of the Fall of Rome to Today?

[Dd714]

Duplicate

http://www.city-data.com/forum/histo...ient-rome.html

[6 FOOT 3]

One difference is the USA grows alot of it's grain based foods at home where as the Romans grew 90% of their grain in North Africa and the Vandals controlled that territory and stopped the flow of grain shipments across the Mediterranian from around 435 to the end of the western Empire in 476. Infact it was one of the reasons that the Eastern Roman Emperor Justian I decided to conquer them in 534 because of the Grain situation.

[Dangerous-Boy]

we're becoming soft like the romans at the end of the empire

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Dangerous-Boy

we're becoming soft like the romans at the end of the empire

Funny. People said that about us before the Great Depression. Then we crushed the Germans, ground the Japanese to powder, and faced down the Russians for forty-five years across the Iron Curtain before they blinked.

I'm not being cavalier about things. But we've got a long way to go. Here are the key issues that we really have to watch.

1) Once the populace learns to vote itself bread and circuses, watch out. Already, 45% of American households don't pay taxes. Therefore, they have no skin in the game when it comes to ensuring the fiscal responsibility of the Federal Government.

2) An overall suspicion of military service. I believe strongly that this trend has actually declined since the end of the Vietnam War. The military is now considered honorable again, as opposed to the 1970s.

3) Freakishness masquerading as the arts. Well, you can answer that one as well as I can.

4) The contentment of the people to hand over all responsibility to a governing class. Hey, why watch C-Span or go to my city council meeting? What a snooze. Dancing With The Stars is on!

5) Hey. I know. Manufacturing and farmwork is really a dead-end. Let's all make our money by shuffling paper. Creating things is for chumps.

6) Let's devote our time to watching sports on television, rather than creating a vibrant civic life.

So, there you go. 5 of the 6 warning signs. Personally, I think the smart people in this country will make their money in the next 15 years, and then get their cash overseas.

[Muhnay]

Hey 6/3 then it was Grain,. Now its oil. See its the same deal.

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by Muhnay

Hey 6/3 then it was Grain,. Now its oil. See its the same deal.

I think i know where your going on your post but be a tad bit more specific. In other words in that Rome didn't have grain shipments so they became weak at the end and if we do not get oil shipments we will become weak also?

[Muhnay]

Grain was the oil of their time. The downfall for them was not enough grain, and the fact they relied on a far off distanced land to supply them.. kinda how we do now with oil.

[texdav]

It's like talking about prediction. Easy to say things are the same but they are vastly different.

[Magnum Mike]

The OPEC cartel are using oil as their weapon against the west, and unfortunately we're helping them by continuing our dependency on crude oil from those nations, mainly Saudi Arabia. Look at what happened to our economy since oil prices have sky-rocketed.

We can prevent what happened to the Roman empire from happening here, by increasing domestic oil drilling. We have more than enough oil to completely take OPEC out of the picture.