“You cannot be seriously suggesting that US imperialism is a non-issue.” Well, yes, today I think I can.

US imperialism died when Donald Trump was elected: he has little interest in being the World Police, and even less in starting wars in foreign countries. He wants NATO to fund and man its own defence and if anything is isolationist. He is rolling back Globalisation and bringing jobs back home. That’s not necessarily a good thing, but it sure as hell is not Imperialism.

“They are not interested in “raising standards of living” they are interested in profit!” You flunked Economics, didn’t you? the ONLY thing that can ever “raise standards of living” is Profits. In case you don’t know, it is estimated that 600,000,000 people are malnourished in the World today. That is a large number but it means that the other 6.4 Billion humans have enough to eat: over 91% of the world’s population. This represents a historic high in the standard of living: more people have been lifted out of poverty by capitalism, free trade and offshoring in the last 30 years than ever before in history. People who don’t have figures to support it say “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer!” The statistics support the view that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting richer too. That is because the profit motive powering the Capitalist Free Market is the only thing that creates new wealth: everyone is richer today than ever before because Profits become retained earnings, otherwise known as wealth. The World is wealthier today than it ever has been: for the first time in history we can feed every man, woman and child on the planet.

Those malnourished 600 million people are hungry because of wars and logistics breakdowns due to governance failures in failed or failing States. Capitalism is not the problem; it’s our best friend and biggest asset. The problem is corruption, religious and ethnic hatred, warfare and poor governance in what some call shit-hole countries.