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gwern comments on What resources have increasing marginal utility? - Less Wrong
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And yet, NYC is still there, and unlike Rome post-barbarians, has only grown in population.
EDIT: and to expand on my point with Rome, disturbances are very common in great metropolises and imperial capitals; pointing to a blackout from over a third of a century ago as indicating the decline of America is like pointing to the Marian or Gracchian riots in Rome as indicating the fall of the Roman empire. (What, you don't remember either? Exactly.)
As it happens I am familiar with the Gracchian riots, they certainly weren't indicative of the fall of the Roman Empire as the Roman Empire didn't exist then; however, the riots were most definitely indicative of the collapse of the Roman Republic.
The 'collapse' of the Roman Republic didn't involve barbarians. Which was the point of the observation. Should America one day 'collapse', may God send us a collapse as dire and apocalyptic and with terrible outcomes as the collapse of the Roman Republic...