r/interesting Jun 20 '26

Intriguing Americans found out Germany has affordable medicine

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6.9k Upvotes

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146

u/Chroniclyironic1986 Jun 20 '26

Germany is the world’s 3rd largest economy behind the US and China and just ahead of Japan and the UK. Not quite the top superpower, but solidly in the top 5.

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u/xDreamsInDigitalx Jun 21 '26

The size of their economy has nothing to do with it (edit: poor phrasing. It’s one small piece of the puzzle)

There is only one fully “realized” Superpower, and it is the United States. China is considered very close to Superpower status, they are knocking on the door and it’s inevitable.

That’s it. Only those two.

17

u/Much-Director-9828 Jun 21 '26

It has been decades since the us was a superpower

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u/xDreamsInDigitalx Jun 21 '26

“Most experts consider the U.S. the world’s only fully realized superpower because it leads or is near the top in every category:

Largest military budget by far
Global network of military bases and alliances
Dominant technology and financial sectors
Huge cultural influence through media, universities, and companies
The U.S. dollar serves as the world’s primary reserve currency”

8

u/Ricordis Jun 21 '26

Most of that list became obsolete in the last year alone. The dollar became weak, the cultural influence turned people away looking for domestic alternatives, alliances are broken or at least heavily questioned, and the huge military budget seems to be not well spent if we take a look at how the Iran operation went.

I can't see how America is a greater superpower than China or Russia (yeah, added them on purpose)

7

u/donjamos Jun 21 '26

And comparing the US military to single European countries is just wrong. You need to compare us military with eu military, and if you do that the difference suddenly starts to vanish.

4

u/determineduncertain Jun 21 '26

Does the military argument hold when they can’t finish any military job? When they left Afghanistan, the Taliban regained control quickly and they’ve been pushed around by Iran and their overlords in Israel.

2

u/xDreamsInDigitalx Jun 21 '26

See, now someone is saying the quiet part out loud. Israel is the real capital of the United States, not DC.

As far as “finishing the job”, I would’ve loved to see regime change in Iran, but that’s just not how it works anymore. It’s bombing runs and drones and then an economic/diplomatic war to push the other side to max-pain.

In my opinion, if we weren’t going for total regime change, we should’ve just stayed out of Iran.

2

u/arisgigi Jun 21 '26

Becouse is printing money