Roman Empire

Many people have likened the decline of America to other past world powers, like Rome.

It is interesting to me that so many people see the parallels, & have talked about the similarities for years. The points below are from a leftist, who compiled them after reading Anthony Everitt’s 'Rise of Rome'. I though his points were pretty solid, but the similarities do not stop there. 

1 — Staggering Increase in the Cost of Elections, with Dubious Campaign Funding Sources: 
2 — Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth:
3 — Continuous War: 
4 — Foreign Powers Lavish Money/Attention on the Republic’s Leaders: 
5 — Profits Made Overseas Shape the Republic’s Internal Policies:
6 — Collapse of the Middle Class: 
7 — Gerrymandering: 
8 — Loss of the Spirit of Compromise: 

All of his points were carefully cherry picked to show a wall street correlation, & blame for the republicans. But this decline has been going on for a long time, & includes a lot of other factors. I probably only agree with #2 & 3 above as major factors in the decline of rome & paralleled with the us. I would add,
1. moral decay.
2. Increase of dependency & govt entitlements.
3. deficit spending/fiat currency.
4. growth of corruption in the government sector.
5. plundering the public treasury.

These are typical symptoms of decline of successful nations. They build, grow, & prosper, then slowly decay from within. We are taking the same path, just doing it faster than rome.