History Repeats Itself: Rome compared to the modern day U.S.A

Rome began with the majority of goods and crops being produced by small farmers, or plebians. These farmers used paid manual labor to produce their crops. Although the prices for produce were relatively high, the economy was also high and the wealth was somewhat distributed. As the Rome republic and eventually the Rome Empire progressed, Rome gained a huge amount of land and riches through it's expansion. Although Rome allowed each conquered society to keep their culture and form of government, each conquered area had to pay taxes to Rome. In these ways Rome as an empire became very wealthy. This wealth however, was not widespread. Mostly upper class families acquired their wealth and the plebians remained somewhat poor. The wealthy families began building and buying latifundias, huge estates, and used slaves as the manual power to produce crops. Slaves were an efficient and cheap choice for latifundias because they required minimal expenditure. The use of slaves in latifundium however, gave the plebieans a disadvantage. Plebeians had to pay their workers and such whereas latifundium only had to supply food and a place to sleep. Therefore latifundium prices dropped whereas plebieans prices for produce remained the same. Therefore, the small plebeian farmers were being put out of business as the latifundium were creating a monoply. This is similar to what happened recently in U.S history. When America began, American's produce needs were being fulfilled by small farmers. However, as you see in this day and age not only are huge farms being created and run by minimally paid workers, other industries are becoming that way also. Just like in Rome American companies are striving to find the cheapest labor so that their production fees will be less than their competitors. Just like in Rome, American companies are turning to foreigners for this cheap labor.( Although they are not turning to slaves) Just like Rome, America is one of the most successful countries of the world, and therefore can turn to less succesful countries, such as 3rd world nations for it's labor. In this way, history has repeated itself. If empires and civilizations reach a certain age and have dealed with certain difficulties, than the empire realizes certain things such as what is the most cost efficient for the empire. In that way history repeats itself because naturally, large empire follow a certain path.