AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): An analysis published in Asia Times has examined the current situation of the United States and compared it to the final years of the Soviet Union—a comparison raised particularly within the framework of structural crises and the declining legitimacy of America's political and economic system
In this analysis, Trump, the President of the United States, is examined as a "historical function," and the question is raised as to whether he more closely resembles Boris Yeltsin, the former president of Russia during the Soviet collapse, or Vladimir Putin. The author emphasizes that this comparison is made not from a personality perspective but in terms of the role played within a system in disequilibrium.
The report, referring to the ideological confrontation of the 20th century between the United States and the Soviet Union, recalls that each system represented a specific model of economic and social organization: one based on capitalism and the free market, and the other on centralization and state planning. However, both systems in practice faced their own internal contradictions.
Subsequently, the report addresses the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union, emphasizing that this collapse was not due to a lack of power but rather to internal structural weaknesses. The elimination of the role of the "merchant" or entrepreneur from the economic cycle led to the disappearance of incentives for production and innovation, ultimately driving the system toward stagnation and public distrust.
In another section of this analysis, the current situation of the United States is described as a "reverse imbalance." Unlike the Soviet Union, which set aside the entrepreneur, in the American system the role of the "worker" and labor has been gradually weakened—a phenomenon that, according to the author, is the result of trends such as globalization, outsourcing, and the expanding dominance of the financial sector.
These developments have made capital in the United States highly fluid and concentrated, while labor does not enjoy such flexibility. The transfer of manufacturing industries abroad and the growing growth of the financial sector have led to the formation of deep economic divides.
As a result, although the U.S. economy continues to generate wealth, this wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of limited groups, and the link between productivity and wages has weakened. According to this analysis, this situation could lead to declining public trust and the emergence of a legitimacy crisis in the American system—a situation that bears similarities to the final years of the Soviet Union.
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