Left on the face of the statute of...
The Buddha in Kamakura, the first samurai regime's capital, Japan.
(Once this great statute was inside a temple building which had gone long time ago, though it might be a reason why I feel this place is very unique even in Japan. Kamakura is also a city where Japanese cultural figures love to live like in Kyoto.)America, America, & the Roman Empire
It is said that if you belong to the real middle-class of America, your life is full of comfort.
It is so, since the American society has been designed and built so as to make members of the real middle-class of America live a comfortable life based on the applied European/Christian Civilization.
It is just like the Roman Empire was designed and built so as to make Roman citizens live a comfortable life based on the applied Greek Civilization.
But, the Japanese people should not risk their life to join the American Empire if they are so qualified and given a chance to do so. In this context, the language barrier between Japanese and English serves well for Japanese as a deterrent factor. In this context, I have checked the state of the U.S. again.
CHAPTER I: American Economy
Roughly speaking, around 2006, the U.S. had a current-account deficit of $200 billion. But, the 2008 financial crisis reduced this trade-related deficit half to $100 billion.
Roughly speaking, the peak of U.S. import was recorded at $670 billion in 2008; U.S. export at $480 billion in 2008. (And, the U.S. is without doubt recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, which can be seen in its export/import trends.)
(http://www.murc.jp/report_pdf/20100630_170440_0929204.pdf)
Compared with Japan, the U.S. imports 8 to 9 times more and exports 5 to 7 times more.
(Source: The Japanese Government, http://www.customs.go.jp/toukei/suii/html/time.htm)As the U.S. has 2.5 times more population, the U.S. imports 3.5 times more and exports 2.5 times more per person than Japan.
The land size of the U.S. is 25 larger than Japan's. The U.S. has natural resources more than Japan beyond comparison. Yet, the difference in the per-person import and export between the U.S. and Japan is impressive.
This difference, 3.5 times more in import and 2.5 times more in export per person, against Japan tells that the U.S. is a kind of world empire, while Japan is a big kingdom.
But, this world empire America is not stand-alone like the Roman Empire. America needs money from other countries as the Roman Empire needed foods from other regions.
(http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt)The top three US Treasury bonds/securities holders, China, Japan, and the U.K., hold in total $2250 billion or $2.25 trillion. This amount is almost half of the total money the Department of Treasury received: $4310.2 billion.
The American economy is bolstered this huge amount of money invested by foreign countries into America.
In 2010, the U.S. spent about $700 billion for its defense, which is apparently supported by total $4310.2 billion from those countries who purchased US Treasury bonds and securities.
Conversely, by leveraging $0.7 trillion military, the American Empire took $4.3 trillion from the world.
With this $4.3 trillion, more than $43 trillion credit must be generated, enabling the American economy. The rest of figures and data is very minor in discussing the American economy.
If this $4.3 trillion is paid back to China, Japan, the U.K. and so on, how will they run the federal government with that huge current-account deficit?
Anyway, Japanese people can measure wealth and power of the U.S. with the information: the U.S. imports 3.5 times more and exports 2.5 times more per person than Japan.
(Anyway, as the Japanese Government has issued 740 trillion yen ($8.9 trillion) bonds, if it should sell all the US Treasury bonds/securities it holds, it can cover only 10% of its debts, though most of the debts are owed Japanese citizens. But, if this 10% is compared with an current interest rate of 2% or so for its outstanding bonds, the selling of U.S. bonds would allow the Japanese Government to survive for five more years without financial aggravation, though circumstantial condition would not easily make it possible.)
CHAPTER II: American Class
Academic Class Models
Dennis Gilbert, 2002
Capitalist class (1%)
Top-level executives, high-rung politicians, heirs. Ivy League education common.
Upper middle class (15%)
Highly educated (often with graduate degrees), most commonly salaried, professionals and middle management with large work autonomy.
Lower middle class (30%)
Semi-professionals and craftsmen with a roughly average standard of living. Most have some college education and are white collar.
Working class (30%)
Clerical and most blue collar workers whose work is highly routinized. Standard of living varies depending on number of income earners, but is commonly just adequate. High school education.
Working poor (13%)
Service, low-rung clerical and some blue collar workers. High economic insecurity and risk of poverty. Some high school education.
Underclass (12%)
Those with limited or no participation in the labor force. Reliant on government transfers. Some high school education.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_the_United_States#Dennis_Gilbert
American rich people (46%):
Capitalist class (1%) + Upper middle class (15%) + Lower middle class (30%)
American poor people (55%):
Working class (30%) + Working poor (13%) + Underclass (12%)
For example, a manager of a medium or small size company, such as a local GM dealer, can live rich in America, though he can fall into poverty when fired and unable to find a new job at the same level as the previous one. But, as long as he can secure his position, he cannot be regarded as a member of the poor.
In the Roman Empire, the total population was 50 million, the number of Roman citizens was 5 million, and the number of troops was 300,000.
So, members of the capitalist class (1%) and the upper middle class (15%) of the U.S. might correspond to the Roman citizens.
The 5 million Roman citizens took responsibility for maintaining the whole Empire, but 45 million local subjects showed their loyalty to their families, relatives, and friends in their regional communities.
Today, in America, however do those members of the capitalist class (1%) and the upper middle class (15%) take responsibility so as to sustain growth of the American Empire?
But, what is required for them is not only responsibility for America but also for the world.
Yet, it seems more likely that those 16% of very rich Americans can make at most 16% of the whole mankind, namely 960 million (16% of 6 billion), very rich.
CHAPTER III: Consideration
The U.S. today does not look like the sole super power which it was a decade ago.
But, no other country can replace the U.S. Rather, the American way of business and life has prevailed so widely. Especially, as long as the U.S. maintains its superiority in the IT sector, it can lead the trend of the global civilization. If not the American way of thinking, the American value and the American view of the world are prevailing. By using, for example, Apple devices, Microsoft OS, and the Google Internet service, everybody in the world is acting like a member of the American Empire.
In conclusion, today's America should be overcome by another America or a different kind of new power, since it is basically based on the same paradigm of the Roman Empire in terms of class-consciousness.
*** *** *** ***
Mencius said:
"The eyes, the ears, and the stomach are all called the minor self.
The mind is called the major self.
If your mind works well as you think, no temptation to the eyes, the ears, and the stomach would mislead you. Accordingly, there is such a distinction between the major and the minor.
If a man is honest to his major self, he is called a great man."
What was good about Former President Mr. George W. Bush is he ate a cheeseburger with his Secretaries or other high-level aids.
What was good about Former British Premier Mr. Tony Blair is he once ate a hamburger in a fast-food shop in Ginza, Tokyo.
What is good about Japan's Foreign Minister Mr. Seiji Maehara is he ate something at McDonald or the like when he recently flew to Florida for sales of the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train system.
However, do they follow suit, say, in Taipei, Seoul, (Pyongyang,) and Shanghai where Shinkanse-like express trains are operated?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avlXvb9sBXI&feature=related
Believe or not "No * Problem.")
Luk 1:11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
Luk 1:12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
Luk 1:13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.