I read a science fiction/thriller story once where America had a sudden cancer epidemic. It almost led to war with Russia until they discovered it was caused by newsprint ink.
Let's say that the latest batch of flu vaccine has prions in it that kill everybody that took it. Three quarters of the US drops dead in six months. America is eliminated as a great power. What happens?
Oil prices decline.
Farm prices decline.
Manufacturing prices decline.
Ore prices decline.
Coal prices decline.
Uranium prices do not decline. Reactors keep running as fuel costs are low once the reactor is built.
America admits immigrants, but only to a limited extent because we are having problems acculturating the ones we have now. Probably we go more for variety. IE, more Africans and fewer Mexicans. We probably sop up the Christian Arabs and the South Africans and the Pacific Islanders being wiped out by global warming and sea level rise.
What happens to the rest of the world as Europe, China, India, and Japan are the great powers? Figure 20, 10, 10, and 10% of total world power. The Arabs are wiped out when the oil price collapses. Pakistan and Bangladesh lose their Arab remittances. Korea has problems with North Korea and then China keeping their military budget up and their economy down. Brazil? Mexico? Turkey?
Let's say that the latest batch of flu vaccine has prions in it that kill everybody that took it. Three quarters of the US drops dead in six months. America is eliminated as a great power. What happens?
Oil prices decline.
Farm prices decline.
Manufacturing prices decline.
Ore prices decline.
Coal prices decline.
Uranium prices do not decline. Reactors keep running as fuel costs are low once the reactor is built.
America admits immigrants, but only to a limited extent because we are having problems acculturating the ones we have now. Probably we go more for variety. IE, more Africans and fewer Mexicans. We probably sop up the Christian Arabs and the South Africans and the Pacific Islanders being wiped out by global warming and sea level rise.
What happens to the rest of the world as Europe, China, India, and Japan are the great powers? Figure 20, 10, 10, and 10% of total world power. The Arabs are wiped out when the oil price collapses. Pakistan and Bangladesh lose their Arab remittances. Korea has problems with North Korea and then China keeping their military budget up and their economy down. Brazil? Mexico? Turkey?