James Pethokoukis interviews demographer Joel Kotkin for his Substack column. Asked to defend the title thesis in his new book The Myth of America's Decline, Kotkin responded.
It's not just that America is stronger, but that everyone else is weaker. When you look at investment flows, I don't think money is coming to America because people think that Joe Biden is a brilliant leader. I think they're coming to America because, where else are they going to put their money?
Europe is not a success story, it can't function as a unit. China is beginning to go the way of Japan, and vast Russia can't defeat Ukraine while 33 times bigger in land area, and ca. 4 times bigger in population.
Who else is there? With all our problems, we remain the hegemon. As Kotkin observes, this is more or less by default.
