Hi Robert,

Think antitrust laws...

One nation, even modeled after the good ol' US of A, will have no competition.

Competition, for lack of a better word, is good. Competition works. ;-)

Take away competition and the folks stagnate. All just wait for their societal benefits and sit on their tushies.

Competition improves the breed. I will use an obvious example: racing cars.

Racing cars are almost exclusively at the level of technology they are today due to competition. From composite fibre bodies to roll cages and complex multivalve engines, racing and competing has spurred many minds to create ever better and efficient technologies.

The same is true with nations. Nations compete with each other. All of space fans have the most obvious example of what can be done when one nation is competing against another.

Now with the USSR passing, our primary competition is gone, and we sit on our laurels waiting for others to reach our own level - at which point we might spur back into action again, to stave off the threat.

A one-world US model, would fail because the competition which makes the US thrive would not exist. Intra-business competition is one thing - but even it often hinges on foreign competition to thrive.

In the US, for example gas companies and banks have been allowed to merge in seeming violation of the fundamental antitrust laws.

As a result gas prices are fixed throughout the nation and banks would sooner never have to see your face inside their branches. Service has gone down and prices go up.

A one world government - will eventually continue these mergers to the point where, over time, the one-world government has one car-maker, one food supplier, one building company, one computer chip maker, etc.

Then quality would slide and progress would come to a standstill.

At first glance it seem like it should work and in sci-fi stories it works - however here is the key:

In sci-fi stories earth is part of a larger community of worlds and is competing with THEM.

Once other inhabitied worlds are discovered, mankind will be capable of moving to a one-world government. Until that time, peaceful, competing nations are the way to go.

SDAI-Tech1

(Yes it is tough to type but one gets used to it!)