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As we watch the United States and the rest of the British-descended nations of the world struggling to manage an ever mounting number of threats, foreign and domestic, it is prudent to contemplate what the average person's life would be like without America. All over the globe, in spite of their distaste for U. S. international policies, people still yearn to come to the United States to participate in the "American dream." After all, even with its many real or imagined faults, it is still perceived as one of the best places on earth to find personal freedom and economic opportunity. For decades, the United States has been the world's "breadbasket," providing about half of the food consumed by the hungry masses of the "third world" nations. The U. S. has been a generous benefactor, lending to troubled regions and then forgiving loan debts when struggling nations could not repay. Even those nations that had "lost" a war against the U. S. emerged victorious in a sense, financially speaking, thanks to generous American post-war reconstruction aid. The U. S. gave post-war Germany and Japan the means to become fierce economic competitors against the nation that had "defeated" them in battle. Searching the pages of history, one would be hard-pressed to find a more magnanimous antagonist than America. Because of its unique status as a world super-power, the U. S. has come to be seen as arrogant, even by many nations it once counted as friends. Enemies and supporters alike have noted increasing signs of hypocrisy from a nation that once presented itself as an idealized "shining city on a hill."