Chapter 3.
Egypt had attained hegemony over Africa, India and most of the Mediterranean coastline. Russia had regained power over many of her satellite countries, and was once again a major world player. She and her few allies were locked in a land war with China in the former Pakistani Republic. No matter who won the conflict, Pakistan would soon cease to exit as an independent nation.
Western Europe was in economic meltdown. The union they had formed so long ago had become stagnant. Standardization of currencies had initially stabilized most national economies. But government interventions (such as commodity price controls and regulations) had essentially eliminated incentives for efficiency or product improvement. If a manufacturer developed improvements to existing products, government regulations prevented him from charging more for those improvements. Also, if a manufacturer developed a new product, the government established what was considered a fair price for it. What had ostensibly been an effort to level the playing field for all competitors, ended up stifling competition. Rather than producing quality, the focus changed to producing quantity. Markets became flooded, and when this happened, demand plummeted.
When product sales decreased, so did employment. As unemployment increased, so did the costs of government programs that provided for the needs of the unemployed. Since government was unable to generate revenue on its own, the growing burden was being carried by fewer producers. Eventually the tax burden on the working citizenry became so great that it became easier for them to live off the government than to provide for their own needs. Western Europe was essentially caught in a self-consuming cancer of it’s own design.
Despots continued to come and go, each leaching as much as he could from the system before being removed from office, only to be replaced by another who possessed an identical agenda hidden behind a different rhetoric.
The “Western” powers (now only North and South America) had become totally Socialized. The citizenry provided a meager economic base for what had essentially become a military police-force-for-hire. From a political standpoint they were “anyone’s dog who’d hunt with them.”
The Japanese, Thais and all other remaining countries in the region played little part in world politics. Their populations were small, and their resources were in short supply. They were essentially at the mercy of the Chinese.
The Israelis had managed to hold on to their narrow strip of sea coast on the Med. Over the decades their politicians continued to curry favor with the West. But now that the U.S. “Republic” was finally being drained dry, the atmosphere in Jerusalem was grim. It was still politically correct around much of the world to tolerate the Jews. But with the decline of western political influence, many citizens of this garden by the sea feared for the life of their nation.
Amon awoke to the blaring of a klaxon, followed by
“Prepare to surface, prepare to surface,” then a loud thump on his door and a muffled voice. “We’ve arrived sir. Make ready to depart the ship.”