Where’s the West?

Dmitry Orlov

There is a great deal of diplomatic activity currently taking place in the East. The heads of state from around the world are assembling in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory over imperial Japan with a large military parade (a rarity in China). Although most people in the West — of those who know some history — think that the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war, it was actually the smashing of Japan’s Kwantung army by the Red Army of the USSR that did it, and the Chinese and the Koreans definitely remember this fact. It should be no surprise, then, that Vladimir Putin was received in Beijing as the guest of honor.

Other events taking place are the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Tianjin and the 10th annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. These are all significant events where the future of the world is being shaped by the world’s leaders.

But where is the West in all of this? It is missing!

This should not have come as a surprise. Consider the following. In 2000 GDP by PPP (Gross Domestic Product by Purchasing Power Parity, which is about the only economic measure worth considering when comparing nations) for the G7 countries was $22.3 trillion while BRICS+ (the countries, not the organization) trailed at $10.7 trillion. At the time, the West was dominant throughout the planet, leading in technology, science, education, military power and soft power (owning most of the world’s mass media).

Now fast forward by a mere quarter of a century to today. BRICS+ now stands at $80.3 trillion while G7 trails behind at $58.5 trillion. In terms of economic might, BRICS+ is now 1.5 times more powerful than G7. The West is no longer the leader in either science or technology, especially not as it affects military power. It is trailing BRICS+ in education. Western-owned mass media are still spreading their eye-watering stench throughout the planet, but most of the world has gained a measure of immunity from it.

Now let’s fast forward by another mere quarter of a century, to 2050. BRICS+ will then stand at $640 trillion while G7 will be far behind at $152 trillion, which is four times smaller. The collective West will no longer be part of the global agenda, never mind shaping or controlling it. It will simply be ignored.

Although GDP by PPP is a good reflection of relative economic might, an even better metric is industrial productive capacity, which grew by 1.7 since 2000 for the world as a whole. But this 70% growth was far from evenly distributed. China grew by a factor of 10 (that’s 1000% growth!), India by 330%, Russia by 220%. Meanwhile, US industrial production increased by 10% and has been stagnant since 2007. Germany grew by 7% overall and has managed to drop by 10% since 2007. Other G7 nations have done even worse: Italy is at 73% from its peak in 2007, Japan is at 78%.

Is that the worst of it? By no means! The worst of it is that the world is already starting to ignore the West. Those world leaders gathering in Beijing, in Tianjin and in Vladivostok are there to discuss the shape of the future and the West will clearly be no part of it. The Western plan is a failure and it is up to the successful countries, such as China, India and Russia to show the way forward to the others.

Whose fault is that? Who destroyed their industrial base by offshoring jobs for the sake of corporate profits? Who weaponized the Ukrainians and prodded them into a futile war of attrition against Russia? Who destroyed their own prosperity using anti-Russian sanctions? Who destroyed their energy sector with the fictional climate emergency and the idiotically misguided Green New Deal? And who is now destroying the US economy using misguided import tariffs which, in a year or so, will translate to high inflation, at which point the US federal budget will be consumed by high interest rates?

Those in the G7 countries who think that their national leaders, their words and their deeds, are still somehow worthy of discussion, may want to consider shifting their attentions to more profitable and/or pleasurable pursuits.

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Via https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/b85da1ae-a459-4a0d-bb52-fac50cbe83cc