It is interesting that throughout the human civilizations, the history always repeats itself. Many similarities can be found between the two most powerful civilizations in human history—the ancient Roman Empire and the present day United States. They have both once experienced the great expansion in economy and military, and established a strong government and expanded their influence all over the world. The Roman Empire, once the super power in ancient times, finally failed in 476 AD due to the Germanic invasion. The United State began to show signs of decline from the last decades. It is possible that the US may repeat the decline and fall of the Roman empire, since several major reasons that led to the fall of the Roman Empire has been found in the present day US.

The invasion of Germanic army might be the final curtain ending the glory of the Roman empire, but several crises had been hidden behind the scene for a whole century before the death knell rang. During the late period, the economic crisis weaken the empire and the past prosperity of the great empire could no longer be found. Since the severe inflation occurred in around the 300 AD, the Roman people suffered in high prices and experienced a bitter life. Although Diocletian put forward several economic policies such as maximum prices, they were unable to stop the inflation and worsened the economy. The economics problem weakened the 

Roman empire chronically. The present day US also faces economics problems. Although the United Stated does not face a strong inflation as the Roman empire, but it is also suffering in serious problems in economy. Due to the sub-prime mortgage, the financial crisis in 2008 brought the US economy to its knees.

The change of the political power of the Roman emperors is also a major factor that led to the fall of the Roman Empire. During the time of Diocletian and Constantine, the crisis of the power of Roman Emperor has been increased dramatically. The reform of the monarchy into tetrarchy planted the seeds of future separation of the Roman empire. Diocletian also centralized the power of the Roman emperor. During the ruling of Constantine, the emperor power continued to increase dramatically and himself became a powerful dictator. Similarly, The presidential power of the United State also increased during last decades.

The Roman Empire expanded their military power excessively. During Diocletian’s military reform, the Roman army had been enlarged to 400,000 men. The expansion of military gave heavy burden to the empire. The United States also has a military expansion during last decades, because of the threat of Soviet Union and terrorists. The US military got in trouble in several war after WWII, such as the Korean war, Vietnam war, Afghanistan War and Pakistan war and these wars wasted a lot of national expense.

Large constructions and spending had been expanded dramatically during the late period of the Roman Empire. Constantine built the new capital called Constantinople, and built many infrastructures in Rome. Similar to the military expansion, this kind of expansionary construction gave a huge deficit and heavy burden to the empire government. The US government also put forward their medical care system and spent a lot of money in the bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, which largely increased the government deficit.

In order to meet the huge expense on military and constructions, the Roman government had to raise the tax standard. However, the high tax transferred the heavy burden to plebeian. In addition, the curiales had to pay for the tax if they cannot collect sufficient tax from plebeian and they were forced to stay in their position. This led to the shaken of government structure and plebeian began to hate the government. It also weaken the economics since the farmers and merchants have less incentive to work. During last decades, the US tax standard increased dramatically to meet the national expense. Now the US has became one of countries that have the heaviest tax burden.

Another reason that the late Roman empire experienced low production is due to the decline of free tenant farmers. The US also suffers a decline in basic labor force. Millions of industries and jobs now are transferred to the Asian countries 

During the late period of the Roman empire, the class struggle between plebeian and patrician became more severer. The struggle was not only because of the patrician had more political rights, but also because the income differentiation increased. In other words, the richer became richer and the poorer became poorer. The same problems happen in the US: the entrepreneurs, investment bankers, and movie stars earn much more money than ordinary people, while poor people have much lower income.

The decline and fall of Roman Empire is destined because it has such an enormous territory. Therefore it is extremely difficult for the emperors and government fail to handle numerous complex problems, including economics, military, and political issues. If the present day US cannot handle these crucial factors well, then history of the decline and fall of another super power may repeat again.