Those are strange metrics of success you chose: number of cars produced annually, amount of public debt held.
I'd have gone with GDP, military strength, set of advantageous alliances, or some other measure of economic, military, or political power.
I'd have gone with GDP, military strength, set of advantageous alliances, or some other measure of economic, military, or political power.
We are declining? I wish someone had told me.
And again, I don't understand why having 1 trillion dollars in a reserve bank is a useful measure of economic power. The Chinese economy has a GDP of $10tn compared with the U.S. economy of $17tn. That is an example of a meaningful metric of power.
^^^ the parent commenter edited his entry after I submitted my original comment, which changes the relevance of my comment.