Steven Shaneyfelt Professor Mahaffey ENGL-1102-005 April, 23, 2013 Rome, Blueprints of Americas fall?

America has been showing many signs of the same factors historians agree contributed to Romes demise for quite a while. It stands to reason, as stated clearly by George Santayana, "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it." If we are to stand with this reason we must look at the problems that visibly contributed to the fall of Rome and apply what we learn to overt the same problems from destroying us. There are four interlocking categories that made the problems faced by America today that were also faced in the Roman Empire. These problems fall under the categories of Social, Economic, Military and Government. The failure to solve these problems, on the part of the Roman Empire, came to a climax during the fall of Rome. Social Socially the Roman Empire was in shambles. The nuclear family was being attacked by a monstrous divorce rate and the high availability of prostitutes. The capital city of Rome had more than 32,000 prostitutes roaming the streets. In America the divorce rate is almost 50%. In the United States there are more than two million prostitutes. This break down of the nuclear family produced ill-educated members of society, who made unnecessary mistakes that could

have been avoided if they learned from their families. This lack of wisdom that is not being passed down to subsequent generations stalled the Roman empires ability to grow due to the fact wisdom gathered in the past had to be relearned again and again. In Rome Entertainment was held as a high priority of most people and took the place of more important political and social matters paramount to their existence as a nation. Knowing who the best gladiator was more important than the decisions that affected how they functioned as a society. This same scenario is easily seen in America by all of the time spent in front of some sort of entertainment. The entertainment, not bad in of itself, is addicting and grabs attention more than politics does. This pitfall keeps effective solutions to problems from being implemented, known about and enforced to better the society. Economic Many experts I have researched have stated many times the weak economy was the biggest factor of the collapse of Rome. The economy spans many areas and can decide the success and failure of plans designed by the government. Cheap slave labor comprised most of the labor force in the Roman Empire and grew exponentially. This increase in slaves deprived the free Romans of jobs to take care of themselves and their families. This fact affected the farmers the most when rich nobles would buy their land and use slave labor to cultivate it. As a result the ex-farmers moved to the ever crowding cities to find work. Even though we do not have slave labor, the parallel in the United States is the massive workforce from over the border with Mexico. Most of these workers work for less than what most Americans will work for. To the farm owners and other employers the logic is clear. Hire

the cheaper labor force. These circumstances result in fewer employees who are American, thus creating a large unemployment problem in the cities potential workers move to. Rome itself was filled with people without work. In order to deal with this problem the government started to provide free food, clothing, and entertainment to prevent rioting in the streets. This atmosphere that was created, did not encourage people to find work and provide for themselves. Instead they relied on the government to care for them even more and voted for those politicians who promised them more things. The same approach to unemployment is used in many American cities today. Welfare and government subsidies a lot of times are easier to live off of than getting a job. This monumental error in policy builds on the problem it is trying to solve, creating more economical strife in the country. Even though the Roman Empire was not experiencing a great economy, the people, especially the upper class, still demanded luxury goods. These luxury goods mostly came from foreign markets since the Roman economy could not readably produce them. As a result the wealth of Rome started to run out. The government responded by creating tender that was cheaper to make. This created inflation. When this new abundant tender hit the market the merchants were less eager to sell their goods for money that was worth less. In America luxury goods are almost if sometimes not more important than physical goods to survive. Merchants who sell goods to the United States are becoming more reluctant to sell to an economy with a bad inflation problem because of the digressing value of the tender they receive, giving them less profit over time. The problem of inflation in America is especially evident when one talks to someone from an older generation about prices back in the day.

As evidenced by Rome, when people could not sustain themselves and the government could no longer help, the population went into chaos thus self-destructing themselves.

Milatary The Roman army at one time had the most powerful army of all time and used it to great effectiveness to take over the largest chunk of the known world since Alexander the Great. However the great conquests had proved to make enemies all over the borders of the Empire. These enemies constantly were challenging Romes army to regain land they lost. In order to keep the land they had taken the Roman Empire had to spend a large amount of funds on the armed forces and had to keep recruits coming in to the army. When the economy collapsed in Rome the military toppled with it. This created the opportune moment for enemies of Rome to invade and destroy the last of the Roman army. Likewise the United States military is arguably the best most powerful military in the world. It also has a lot of economical capital going into it to keep the missions they go into possible. The US military also has the problem of being ordered into situations where they have made many enemies around the world. This same mixture of a precarious economy and angered enemies could destroy us as a nation as it did Rome. Government The ultimate power, government is the brain of all of the decisions that prospered and also ultimately failed Rome. Same is true for all governments, they decide if a people will stand or fall.

The government of Rome, near the end of the empire, was extremely corrupt and reeked of power hungry politicians who sought to better themselves. Positions in government were sold and bribes were given to sway voters. This attitude of government differed greatly form those who founded it. The founders where more concerned with the welfare of Romes future than themselves. The American government is not too far behind the Romans in the way of government corruption. Attempts have been made to sell positions in government and bribery occurs more often than we like to admit. The attitude of many politicians is how they can better themselves and get more power. In America the selfless ideals the founding fathers had been very different from most modern politicians today. How can we learn from Rome? So far I have talked about many dooms day indicators, courtesy of Rome, to the demise of the United States. But what can we do about these many problems in our society? One thing is for sure if we keep trying solutions that have failed in the past, how soon will it take them to fail us? We should look to what helped Rome become great in the first place and the policies that made us prosper. Dr. Ben Carson, in one of his speeches, clearly stated how we can remedy the dire situation in the United States.
The USA needs to educate its people so that they will be responsible to not go down the path of Rome. The path of moral decay and lack of fiscal responsibility helped the Romans destroy themselves more than others. If you dont think America can fall, get out some books and start reading. Our country is decaying. How can we fix it? We can fix it because we are smart

Lessons for America, courtesy of the Roman empire Walter Isaacson The New York Times The New York Times Company 11 May, 2007 web. 17 Feb. 2013 Top ten similarities between the fall of Rome and the fall of America. HotBedInfo. WordPress & Atahualpa, n.p. 29 June 2011 web. 27 Feb. 2013 Why the U.S. economy parallels Ancient Rome Financial Post. National Post John Shamuel 15 Feb, 2012 web. 17 Feb, 2013 Ben Carson Speech White house prayer breakfast. White house. 12 Feb, 2013