By Jack Parkos | United States

History has shown us that empires have a tendency to fall. It happened to many European powers, but the most common example is Rome. Most historians agree the Roman Empire fell in 476 C.E., while the Eastern half went on to become the Byzantine Empire.

But why did Rome fall? There are several factors that contributed to the fall, but most historians agree that economic hardships, over-expansion, and militarism played a role in its collapse.

At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Middle East. It was a very large territory, but with a large territory comes a large responsibility of governing the area. This means maintaining a large military presence in many areas, with barbarians and rebellions prevalent. The need for a large military presence cost the Empire a lot, which meant funds could not go to other areas, causing them to weaken.

But Rome’s problems did not stop there. Rome experenced many economic problems as well, facing mass inflation. The inflation was caused by Rome debasing its currency. It did this to both gold and silver coins. Rome also increased taxes on both the wealthy and the poor.

With it’s constant expansion, warfare, corrupt leaders, and economic troubles, The Roman Empire fell in 476 C.E. Do any of these problems sound familiar? Overspending the military? Inflating currency? If you’re an American, they definitely do.

The United States is an empire in every thing but name. We have 800 military bases across 70 countries. The new omnibus spending bill increases the Military Budget to 700 billion dollars a year. Does this go for our homeland defense? Not at all. How does needlessly reaching our imperial tentacles across the globe protect America?

Rome debased it’s currency (which was based on gold and silver) leading to inflation. What does America have? The Federal Reserve: essentially printing money out of thin air, causing mass inflation and economic problems.

So what does all this mean? The United States needs to learn from Rome. Rome could not keep up with an Empire. America wont be able to forever. It costs too much. We already are over 21 trillion dollars in debt. We keep increasing the overall budget and over spend. This is exactly what Rome did, and Rome collapsed.

America may or may not completely fall like Rome, but we could face a true crisis. The taxpayer will be massively exploited (more than they already are). The economy has already crashed, and it can again.

How can we prevent the downfall of America? It’s pretty simple.

End our “Empire” over seas. You may call me “Anti American” or “Unpatriotic” for this belief, but it is for the betterment of the nation. Focusing our military on national defense rather than our empire could allow us to majorly reduce spending and focus more on our country. This is true “America First.” Audit, then End The Fed. The Federal Reserve has to go. Money needs to return to a gold standard. The Federal Reserve has lead to so many economic problems. Sound money could majorly reduce inflation. (I will write a more in depth article on Fed soon).

This is history we do not want repeated in America. We should learn from Rome’s mistakes and use it to better the future.

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