what are some parallels between us and ancient rome?

[Dave M]

We have a Senate. We copy their architecture. Our society is decadent. LOL. Just kidding, though there might be some truth to that. Our treasury is in debt. We have the illusion of thinking that the people have a real say in how the government is run. The rich actually have all of the power. We are always at war with someone, somewhere. We both want to rule the world, though they did it in a different way than we do. They were more upfront about it, whilst we do it more secretly. We have both had lots of bathouses for men. Free sex is quite tolerated, with similar adultery laws, though not exact. We both coin money. We both have thought of our system of government to be superior to other forms. We like wrestling between men wearing little clothing. We have assaninated many of our best leaders.

Rome probably fell due to both being in debt and overextending its territory. It was too difficult to control so much territory until it got a larger core of very loyal citizens in the outerlying areas. But due to the way things were set up, Roman generals had a bit of power/influence, so there was often pressure for them to conquer more lands. Often the generals were the ones who became the head of state, and still were expected to show their greatness. This caused them to spend too much money on buildings and war. People finally have had enough. And the people in the outer lying areas don't come to help defend Rome so quickly, and started actually allying with Rome's enemies.

And when Roman leaders were overspending on building things, they didn't have that money to pay for more and better soldiers, making them susceptible to attack from their enemies.

And there is a huge similarity here. Both us and Rome had to always make decisions to spend money on "defense" or on intrastructure or what we might call social causes. And though Rome's social causes might not seem to be the same as ours, a waterway/aquaduct certainly was an important social cause, or you might call it an infrastructure improvement. And it seems that they let spending get out of control, all the while there were enemies attacking them, so they had to keep spending money on armies.

In general there was the illusion that no one was better, no one could ever destroy what they had built, and everything would always get better and better, so there was no reason to be frugal and prudent about spending. Our government and society has been just like that. And I think we are right on the verge of understanding that right this very minute. The stock market has finally spoken very loudly.