The British, even at the peak of their power, faced constant challenges by France and Germany, culminating in WWI and WWII. There were no such challenges to US power in the 90s.
The US is still #1 in the world in total GDP; Norway is the highest in GDP per capita, but this is largely due to oil wealth.
The US however is far behind on standard of living and health care quality rankings... Europe has us beat there. Free market capitalism is a real nightmare.
The police state is perhaps more frightening in Britain than here; you have far more cameras, no guns, far more peoples' DNA on file and stricter limitations on free speech. Sooner or later both of us will probably have to leave our respective countries as I feel the US is only marginally behind Britain on this issue.
Though, don't forget, I do not find "great empire" to be a point of pride. Empires are almost always detrimental to everyone inside and outside their borders, except for a handful of powerful rich bureaucrats and businessmen.
The US is still #1 in the world in total GDP; Norway is the highest in GDP per capita, but this is largely due to oil wealth.
The US however is far behind on standard of living and health care quality rankings... Europe has us beat there. Free market capitalism is a real nightmare.
The police state is perhaps more frightening in Britain than here; you have far more cameras, no guns, far more peoples' DNA on file and stricter limitations on free speech. Sooner or later both of us will probably have to leave our respective countries as I feel the US is only marginally behind Britain on this issue.
Though, don't forget, I do not find "great empire" to be a point of pride. Empires are almost always detrimental to everyone inside and outside their borders, except for a handful of powerful rich bureaucrats and businessmen.