Unveiling the Myth That Democracy Made the U.S. Strong

People who believe in — and advocate for — the U.S. political system often claim that China should learn from the United States, because democracy is what made the U.S. strong. And so, is it really true that democracy made the United States strong? Let us try to unveil this myth.

Since A.D. 1500, in countries colonized by the West, like the United States, most people were Catholics or Protestant Christians. Even so, they advocated for the use of violence and did not speak of justice or human rights. They treated the blacks as slaves and massacred the Mayans and the Indians; they also burned down and looted regions like Africa and Asia so as to gain affluence for their nation. The distribution of this wealth was then determined by many elected governments.

Let us look at the special case of the United States:

In World War I and World War II, given the fact that the United States was not used as a battlefield, many talented people and their finances immigrated to the United States to escape the chaos. Besides, the United States did not initially get involved in the war because it spent most of its time earning money from selling artillery. In this way, the United States managed to gather a huge pool of talent and funds to act as a creditor to those countries involved in the war, which in the end led it to become the world’s first superpower.

This is precisely how the United States emerged as a superpower! We all know that the United States Constitution and its political system remained unchanged before and after World War I and World War II. So, why was the United States considered a second- or even a third-tier country for over a hundred years after its independence up until World War I, and then somehow managed to become first in the world after World War I and World War II? Doesn’t this indicate that the occurrence of the World Wars was the true reason behind the United States’ ability to gain power?

After the end of World War II, the United States had accumulated much wealth. In order to rival the Soviet Union, the United States increased its citizens’ welfare and spent a significant amount of funds on military equipment. Furthermore, competition between the two political parties persisted, and with money to pave the way, elections were increasingly based on the ability to provide welfare to the people. In this way, state expenditure grew. Naturally, the United States continued to increase its wealth in the following ways:

First, since World War II led to the agglomeration of talent and the advancement of technology in the United States, the U.S. could then earn the most money. Second, the United States intended for its currency to dominate after the war, and it accomplished this by managing the supply of American money so as to affect the wealth of other nations, thereby turning around financial crises. Third, the United States blatantly released false information to trigger the Iraq War so as to gain access to Iraq’s oil and thus additional wealth. The United States also used this to warn other countries that they should not go against its international interests.

However, these three areas did not compensate for the United States’ military and welfare expenses. To aggravate the situation, the United States increased its welfare and paid its people higher wages while shortening work hours. As such, costs grew, and to maximize profits from available finances, the United States’ manufacturing industry and other industries were outsourced, causing a hollowing-out effect. Besides, as other countries advanced technologically, the competitiveness of U.S. products declined, and this worsened the United States’ debt situation.

Slowly, the United States accumulated more debt, and an ironic phenomenon emerged: The most democratic country in the world became the country with the most debt. In order to salvage the situation, the United States and other agents launched financial battles like the Asian financial crisis and used alleged financial innovations (like the Lehman bonds) to rob others of their wealth. Unfortunately, the financial crisis eventually hit Wall Street. The United States finally used the historical dominance of its currency to print money to rob wealth from other nations so as to exit the crisis. These actions are weakening the currency and the credibility of the United States. After two acts of printing money, the world began to complain.

In addition, while other Western nations like Japan and England face similar situations, they could not rob other nations’ wealth like they used to. Even though the global financial system is skewed to the benefit of the West, these Western nations have grown poorer after each election, so much so that the money that they had gained in the past has been almost completely used up. They now face a huge amount of debt and are on the brink of bankruptcy.

As seen from the facts above, it is not because of Western democracy that the United States or other Western nations grew dominant. Instead, it is this Western democracy that has led to the accumulation of debt. In contrast, the Chinese government and its people have used their intelligence and hard work to explore the socialist model and have achieved success from it. Even though there is still room for improvement, there is also a trend that China will become increasingly successful. So to those who still live by the Western political system, you might want to reconsider your stance!