Is America The New Rome…??

…Fated to fail

From the start, Rome was destined to absolute monumental failure.  It started out small like every other empire but there came a point where Rome became too big… I mean it was enormous. I’m guessing that they ignorantly did not realize that they weren’t going to be responsible enough of their empire for it to continue thriving as it had been during the Pax Romana (a time period of about 200 years where Rome was at its best.)

Too much and too fast…

Because of this, the Roman government was weakening continuously while the population of the Roman Empire was growing rapidly and becoming tremendously immense.  All of this meant that the government could not control the rapidly growing empire…at all. The Romans thought that they would always be the best, but just like the Chinese dynasties, their greatness was fated to end. Someone once said, “All good things must come to an end.” The people of the Roman Empire were probably way too confident in their government, but who could blame them; they were the biggest empire at the time.  Although they tried their best, laziness probably got to the Romans; even as they saw their empire coming to an end and becoming corrupt, they couldn’t have cared less.

 

… Don’t bite off more than you can chew

Why did Rome grow so amazingly big in the first place? The Roman Empire grew simply because they were remarkably greedy. The Romans had a good sized empire already, but that just wasn’t enough for them. Their goal was to grow, grow and grow.  I wonder what they were thinking to do when it got extremely large. Did they even have a better form of government for when the empire got way too big for the government system at that time? Regardless, they took over a lot of places including today’s Britain, France, Germany, Egypt, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, and many more. Not only were they growing with greed, but they were also making citizens upset. There was no way possible they could’ve controlled that many angry and disappointed people while keeping their empire thriving and large.   Greed is a good thing to a certain point: think about it, if they hadn’t been greedy, their empire wouldn’t have expanded and become extremely successful and powerful. Having a huge empire increased their power over trade and it also made other empires afraid of them, which, in a certain way was a good thing. If other empires or countries were scared of being taken over by them, they would cooperate with anything the Romans asked of them. But…. in the end, their greed did not benefit them: they became too greedy and had too much power, so much that they couldn’t handle the responsibilities that came with all of that power.  With great power comes responsibility; they obviously did NOT take this concept into consideration when taking over so many places. Hopefully other countries can learn from their mistakes and from their successes.

 

…….Is America becoming Rome??

How is modern America and the Ancient Roman Empire related ?

Some similarities would include that America is a representative democracy(which is a form of a republic) the same way the Roman Empire was also a republic. Also, the Ancient Roman Empire was very powerful around the world, just like America.  Not only were they both powerful, but they were also very large. In the same way the Roman Empire fell because it was too large to function, America could also eventually do the same thing, because America is absolutely huge.  Obviously, America’s government is stronger than Rome’s was, but that could change at any given moment.  Either way,  I personally think that America is not looking to expand further in the near future, so if it were so fall because of its size,  it would happen in years to come; that type of failing won’t happen in the blink of an eye.  

How is modern America and the Ancient Roman Empire different ?

The difference between the amount of rights that Americans have and the amount of rights that people in the Roman Empire had is enormous. This a very good thing for Americans because we get huge amount of freedom and not too much where its like we’re living in an anarchy, but enough that prevents Civil Wars.  Rome made the mistake of not giving rights to certain people, which caused Civil Wars. Because the government already couldn’t control the fast growing population, these wars were definitely not helpful. Moving on to another difference is slavery…….In the Roman empire, slaves were taking a large amount of jobs, but in America one of our main goals is to create more jobs ,which improves and helps the economy. Although we did at one point have slaves, America has learned that the smarter thing to do is have people feel happy in their country.  

By: Nina Yalung, Kendall President, and Michelle Andrade

Links:https://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-s-nye/america-like-rome_b_7147216.html

https://www.moneycrashers.com/united-states-america-roman-empire/

How Roman Slaves Put The Romans Out Of Work

Roman  Slaves    by: Leanne, Kayla, Sadie 

Life as a slave was very hard. They were treated terribly by the romans.

Romans, specially the wealthy ones depended greatly on their slaves for maintaining an opulent lifestyle. These slaves did most of the work for his or her masters and worked diligently to supply them comfort. Slaves in Rome were used for house servant, labour, and gladiator fighting. Educated slaves were even utilized as physicians, teachers and poets. Educated and skillful slaves carried a hefty price tag. Slaves made up a substantial a part of the Roman population. In 1st century BC, 30 to 40 percent of Italy’s population comprised of slaves.

Slaves were perceived as foreign, untrustworthy, and lazy. Rough conditions, slaves had to fight as gladiators and get killed. They often had to work in extremely dangerous mines.

The lifespan of most slaves varied depending on his/her owner and position.Slave escapes weren’t uncommon however typically unsuccessful.

 

Rome offered a technique for social advancement for a select variety of slaves. They granted them citizenship 1 slave for every 3 free people or about 2 million slaves. The victory in the 2nd punic war rise of wealth improved and gave the the ability to own slaves. Depending on their master, they could buy freedom using money earned.

 

However, the master could avoid agreement and take the money for their own. Slaves were the lowest of all classes in this society.

 

Even a freed criminal could have more rights. A slave had no rights at all and absolutely no legal status or any individuality. The children born to freed slaves were however, considered free with full rights of a roman citizen.

 

Many roman people were owned by other people, or by the roman government, as slaves. Because the romans didn’t really have hourly wage, or salaried work.

 

As we know men and women who didn’t own their land or a business on their own were often enslaved. The jobs slaves did were jobs witch today in the US are done by free people working for wages. Like today, some of those jobs were awful, and some of them were pretty good.

 

Many of these men and women, worked in the fields especially in southern france and spain,on big farms owned by rich men and women.

 

Slaves were usually prisoners captured in war, but some people had been kidnapped in Italy.

 

Slaves in Rome had a very problematic time for things like freedom and rights. Most times slaves don’t fight for things  like freedom and rights because they are uneducated to the many privileges they can get and they don’t have the money to get out slavery to fight for it. Some slaves worked for money, food, water and other things but some didn’t get any money If you were a slave and rebelled you would have consequences for rebelling and would have to work more or would be killed as well as if you were to run away.

Slaves were sold at a slave-market. They were put on show, naked, with a notice around their necks. anyone who had enough money could buy them. Once sold they were the property of their new owner and had to work for no money. Sometimes a rich man would have as many as 400 slaves.

Some slave owners beat their slaves and slaves that ran away could be killed. Slaves could not argue with their masters, they had to do exactly as they were told or else they would be punished. If a slave killed his master then all the other slaves in the household would be killed.

 

Both men and women were sold as slaves and young boys were the most expensive slaves to buy. Some slaves were well educated, especially those from Greece, and they would be used to teach the children of the house.

 

Women slaves would be used as hairdressers, dressmakers, cooks and servants for rich women. Other slaves worked in small workshops making leather or silver goods or pots and pans.

 

the slaves who had the hardest jobs were those who were put to work in the mines. They had to spend long hours underground in hot, cramped conditions. The mines were also unsafe and often slaves were killed in accidents. Farmers used slaves to do the hardest work on their farms like digging and ploughing.

Although they, and other slaves, would be killed if they ran away, many did try to escape. However, this was very difficult because they had no one to help them and many of them did not speak Latin.


Slavery was practiced in Rome for many years, even as it absolutely was in Europe. thus standard was the establishment of slavery in Rome that, the same as the U.S., in some cities, slaves outnumbered citizens!

 

Because slavery was a part of Rome’s history for long and therefore the numbers of slaves so great, it had been inevitable that slaves would get up and revolt against their masters for higher living conditions. There have been 3 main rebellions throughout the republic.  

 

Overall, slavery was cruel and unjust and we think these roman slaves didn’t deserve the harsh life they had to live.

How rich people are lazy

How Rich people are lazy:

Money in America is very abundant.

Some people have more money than others. It is very easy to become greedy here in the USA.

When people get to rich they can become lazy and bored. They complain they don’t have anything and they don’t have any stuff. While, other people out there in the world need homes, clothes, and food.

People in Rome are also rich. Some of them are greedy but not all of them are. Most of them are poor and don’t have a home or any were to live. The kings are extremely greedy and they are so rich they don’t know what to do. They get very bored and they get very mean and controlling.

Most of the time the kings were either sitting doing nothing or being mean to others. They were so lazy that their population started to go down and things started to not be the same as they were. The kings were being selfish to people around them.

They need to start to think about their people more then there self.

So in conclusion the rich coulter is not only in the present but it also was in the past. Rich people should help out more sense they have more ability to do anything.

Emily, Rebecca, and Devany

Cites:

McGeough, Kevin M. “Roman Moneylending.” World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2004, ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Results?q=1706994.

Increased use of spaces put how many romans out of work?

 

In ancient rome the slave to free ratio was 1 to 3. Slaves made up 40% of the population. By 2030 scientists believe machine automation could displace up to 30% of jobs

Basic jobs

In ancient rome slaves did the majority of the work cleaning the streets, house work, being cooks, being builders. The free romans became lazy and lost effort. Only people with great talent and brains and great effort kept their jobs. While the untalented had the same talent as the slaves

 

It relates to our current life because education is so important it’s hard to find a job without a good education. College takes a lot of effort and time and if ur lazy and have no effort you might not do well and drop out or even not go. In ancient Rome being very good at something and having a peculiar skill to have a job is very similar to what we have now. Having a college education or getting a masters and in a certain skill are very important. Like say you were a basic chef in Ancient Rome, there were probably many just like you same dishes same skills there would be a lot of competition if new people came with better dishes. That’s just like today. Say you were a basic pizza delivery person and you just delivered pizza for a living and you always took let’s say 30 mins to make and deliver the pizza. Well what if someone came along and could do exactly what you do in 20 mins. Who would work more? The guy who could do it better. That could be the same case for so many jobs. Slaves couldn’t displace jobs like doctors. They needed experience which they didn’t have and needed smarts and study. In our current work in the medical field AI and robots. A major issue is the problem of accountability. Who is responsible for a medical error if no doctor is involved in the diagnosis. What will happen when the AI makes a wrong diagnosis and the doctor goes with it. Who is to blame? Robots will take care of the machines like they do now but they shouldn’t diagnose patients. That should be left to humans. Jobs robots will take over and humans will lose will most likely be taxis, Cars, trains, security. They won’t take over jobs like doctors, police, medical surgery. They don’t have feelings so it would be hard for them to relate and for us to be comfortable with them.

-Joey

 

 

 

Mining

The slaves who had the hardest lives were those who were put to work in the mines. They spent long hours underground in hot and cramped mines. The mines were not safe and often slaves were killed in the mines. There were many forms of Roman mining the main forms were surface mining and deep-vein mining, surface mining being the most common. Romans would locate veins of minerals on the surface by unleashing a powerful flow of water. They would build aqueducts that sometimes could be very long to bring water from rivers and collect them in large tanks. Then the water would be released from the tanks, this method of Roman mining being known as hushing.The aqueducts would also power machines used in Roman mining such as stamp mill and trip hammers used to crush the extracted ore into small pieces before further processing or to filter out precious metals such as gold. Today we use heavy machinery such as excavators, mining drills and blasting tools. Blasting tools are an essential part of the mining industry and are used to break down and fracture materials by use of a calculated amount of explosive to liberate the sought-after product from the waste material. Blasting is also used to remove pockets of unwanted material that are preventing mining machines and personnel to get to the seam containing the materials of interest. Unmanned drill rigs will drill holes at depths and positions on a blast face to ensure that a particular size is achieved. Once this process has been completed, an excavator is used to recover the rocks and other debris that have been blown up during the blasting. The material is then conveyed to a central conveying system which will take it directly to the surface or via a skip and hoist system.

 

 

When & why did all the problems occur?

With the growth in the empire, the number of slaves in Rome grew rapidly. Roman generals in their campaigns abroad sent back thousands of captured soldiers to be sold as slaves. In the campaign against the Gauls (59 to 51 BC) it is reported that JUlius Caesar and his army over a million people were captured as slaves.
The demand for slaves in Rome had also grown during this period. As more and more men were now needed for the army in order to extend and maintain the Roman Empire, there were fewer men available to work the fields.
Slave traders would follow the Roman army abroad on their campaigns. After a battle they would buy the defeated soldiers and their families, and then arrange for them to be sent back to Rome and the other major settlements in the empire.

Why is this kind of problem not gonna occur in the future?

There’s not gonna be this type of problem in the future because slavery is nearly over in the world though there are some countries that still have slaves, thats cause slavery is being reduced and removed from the world slowly.

The Comparison Of The Rich Of Rome To The Rich Of America

During the time of Ancient Rome’s fall there has been an increase is tax and inflation which made it harder for the poor/plebeians to live there. The rich/patricians were able to avoid the large tax by moving to the countryside as the tax and inflation was still growing fast for the plebians. As this goes on, the patricians refuse to help or invest in the smaller businesses so no new businesses happen and so they don’t have enough money to pay for what’s needed and then it eventually lead to a huge crash. While america isn’t in an economic crash, there are wealthy american that do use these tactics just to make their lives easier.

First, the rich moving to away to avoid tax in america isn’t unheard of and about 12,000 millionaires do change their state each year just to avoid their tax. For example, if  a state increases its top tax rates by 10 percent, studies have shown that this leads to a one percent decline in that state’s millionaires. Also, some studies on this topic have been keeping a close eyes on two states with a large tax rate like New York and Illinois and two states with no personal income tax like Texas and Florida to look at the migration patterns for millionaires and see anything interesting. The study have found that the states with the large tax rate (New York and Illinois) do have a net out-migration of millionaires and Texas having a net in-migration of millionaires. Surprisingly for Florida, all of the three states that been listed has had an incredibly large quantity millionaires that have migrated to Florida.

Secondly, the rich refusing to help the poor in america is something that has been and still discussed among many. There are many people in the world who strongly believe that the rich just generally don’t care about poor and only care about stastaning their wealth in society. They think the reasons is because they think the rich don’t want to be bothered, they feel overwhelmed by choices, they don’t want to be hassled, and they are to nervous about going broke. While some of these claims could be valid arguments in their own right, it still doesn’t talk about how not helping the poor hurts america and how that helped rome to eventually fall.

The rich not caring about the struggling poor is not just morally wrong, but hurts the country as a whole and lowers the wealth of the its government. Comparing the fall of rome’s from its economic problems to another economic catastrophe, The Great Depression. During that time, to help get america out of the slump they thought that if people had money or jobs, then they could use that money to pay for goods and get the economy flowing again. While rome’s unemployment rate isn’t the topic of discussion at the moment, but it definitely would been beneficial for the country if the rich patricians started to share their money at the time with the poor plebians. America isn’t in a huge economical  problem anymore, but wealthy individuals could still give support though donations for communities living in poverty to give them a sustainable life do they can help the economy. But also because it’s the right thing to do, to give the people who work harder the us just to live the choice to have an easier life.

And lastly, the comparison of america and the country of rome’s distribution of income of the rich higher class group of people instead of split evenly among them and the poor. Although it’s practically impossible on being able to find an exact distribution of the income for ancient rome, many schools and researchers have found a good estimate on what they believed the distribution was at the time. And the studies have show that the top one percent of roman society controlled 16 percent of the wealth. While that already may seem high for just a one percent of its society it’s only about half of what america today’s one percent control with a 38 percent in wealth., you could even say that rome’s income distribution was even more fair than america today.

In conclusion, the fact that the rich roman did nothing to help with many problem caused by them and didn’t think to support their country in a time of need is strangely similar to present day american economical issues. From the rich moving to avoid an increase in tax, the rich not caring enough about the poor lower class, and to the large difference of the unfair distribution of the income are all traits that wealthy americans either have done or how it affects everyone else. Now this agreement does not apply to all wealthy individuals let alone the majority, but it does apply to more than I speculated before going into the research and hopes that at least on of these issues gets better during my lifetime.

 

Work Cited

 

Zaremba, Cheyenne. “Reflections Of Rome: Economic Similarities Between USA Wealth Distribution And The Fall Of The Roman Empire.” The Odyssey Online, Roberts Wesleyan College, 8 Aug. 2016, www.theodysseyonline.com/reflections-of-rome.

Stern, Ken. “Why the Rich Don’t Give to Charity.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 26 Jan. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/why-the-rich-dont-give/309254/.

CityLab, Richard Florida, and Richard Florida University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute. “Do Taxes Really Cause the Rich to Move?” CityLab, University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute, 29 June 2016,www.citylab.com/equity/2016/06/do-taxes-really-cause-the-rich-to-move/487835/.