'..private property rights and democracy worked better than the Spanish model of concentrated wealth and authoritarianism.'<blockquote>'North America was better off than South America purely and simply because the British model of widely distributed private property rights and democracy worked better than the Spanish model of concentrated wealth and authoritarianism.'
- Niall Ferguson (
Source, November 14, 2011)</blockquote>
'..here’s another thought for the U.S. Navy: What if this isn’t an imperial planet any more? .. What if, in fact, the U.S. was indeed the last empire? What if a world of rivalries, on a planet heading into resource scarcity, turned out to be less than imperial in nature? Or what if .. this turned out not to be an imperial world of bitter rivalries at all, but in the face of unexpectedly tough times, a partnership planet?'<blockquote>'Nonetheless, if predictions were to be made and trends projected into the future, it might be far more reasonable to predict a cautious Chinese government .. solving confounding domestic problems than an expansively imperial one. It’s almost inconceivable that, in the future, China could or would ever play the role the U.S. played in 1945 as the British Empire went down. It’s hard even to imagine China as another Soviet Union in a great global struggle with the United States.
And speaking of the conjunctures of history, here’s another thought for the U.S. Navy: What if this isn’t an imperial planet any more? What if, from resource scarcity to global warming, humanity is nudging up against previously unimagined limits on unbridled growth? From at least the seventeenth century on, successive great powers have struggled over the control of vast realms of a globe in which expansion seemed eternally the name of the game. For centuries, one or more great powers were always on hand when the previous great imperial power or set of powers faltered.
In the wake of World War II, with the collapse of the Japanese and German empires, only two powers worthy of the name were left, each so mighty that together they would be called “superpowers.” After 1991, only one remained, so seemingly powerful that it was sometimes termed a “hyperpower” and many believed it had inherited the Earth.
What if, in fact, the U.S. was indeed the last empire? What if a world of rivalries, on a planet heading into resource scarcity, turned out to be less than imperial in nature? Or what if -- and think of me as a devil’s advocate here -- this turned out not to be an imperial world of bitter rivalries at all, but in the face of unexpectedly tough times, a partnership planet?'
- Tom Engelhardt,
..Are We Still on an Imperial Planet? May 1, 2011</blockquote>
Context 'Protecting private property' (Defence), of '..life..'<blockquote>
NEOShield to assess Earth defence'The right to private property is an indisputably valid, absolute principle of ethics and the basis for continuous “optimal” economic progress.'
- Hans-Hermann Hoppe (
'..ethics in particular .. absolute principle of ethics..' - '..deze fundamentele ethiek..')
'..mainly regarding the respect for life, private property..'
- Jesús Huerta de Soto.
Four Hundred Years of Dynamic Efficiency'All men dream: but not equally..'</blockquote>