Who asked the US to make its dollar the global reserve? The irony is that before Bretton Woods, the great economist John Maynard Keynes proposed creating an international currency that was not dependent on any single country. He called it the Bancor -- and it was US opposition that killed the good idea. If maintaining the reserve currency is now costly, then the US voluntarily assumed the burden.
In fact, the US did -- and is still doing -- everything it could to destroy alternatives. In fact, making the US dollar the reserve was hugely beneficial to America for some decades. Now that they are thoroughly trapped in Triffin's Dilemma, some Americans are having second thoughts.
There is even greater irony in the hierarchy part. In 1945, when the memories of World War II's horrors were still fresh, the US led the world in creating the United Nations. Its collective security, the brilliant idea behind the organization, would have done much to flatten the hierarchies, making it unnecessary for any single country to be aggressive. A functioning UN would have greatly stabilized the world. However, now that memories of WW2 are fading, the US wants to be the top boss of a global hierarchy, forgetting that it was precisely these Mafia-like hierarchies that caused the two world wars. So the UN's creator wants to destroy the UN. Such an irony.
The 77 years of (mostly) peace since the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco suggests that the UN has been rather effective in its primary task, the prevention of another world war. The US's efforts to destroy -- or at least ignore -- the organization gives us even more evidence that the UN has been strongly hampering the Americans' imperial ambitions. So I believe I am justified in hoping that a new version of the UN will work, and that it will be good for the survival of mankind.
