# Bolivia destined to be a super power? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203 "2010-06-14T21:34:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203/21 "2010-06-15T16:03:22Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > What _does_ Brazil export besides lumber and jiggling buttcheeks? I hear their wax is quite popular. Didn’t Atlanta become the “superpower” it is today in big part due to its central location aviation wise? Obviously its not the ONLY thing, but it does seem to suggest the OP’s author wasnt totally off base theory wise. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203/22 "2010-06-15T17:43:09Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > They took down Butch and Sundance, that should count for something. And Che Guevara also. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203/23 "2010-06-15T18:58:01Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Did he say how he had determined this? It’s not obvious that there’s an unambiguous way to do such a thing on a sphere. Noting that the [antipodes of Bolivia is roughly Hong Kong](http://www.antipodemap.com/), which is doing quite well for itself, thank you, it’s hard to give the argument much credence. Maybe we should look back in geological time to when the continents were all together as one big land mass, determine the center point of that, and then see where that point is now that the continents have split apart. That might be interesting, but I still don’t see any real point to it. Centers of transportation depend on where people have chosen to live, and where the raw materials are vs. where the factories are, and where the food growing areas are vs. where the food eaters are. And that has certainly changed over the centuries, as culture changed. (The Middle East was once important as a trade route for spices; now it’s more important for oil.) And I don’t see the importance of air transportation. Air transport is about 4 down in the list of transportation volume (after pipelines/electric grids, water transport (cargo ships & barges), and land transport (trains, trucks, etc.)). And or intercontinental rockets(!) – they aren’t used for transportation at all, that I know of. Even as weapons, they’ve never been used, just a threat during the cold war. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203/24 "2010-06-15T19:05:18Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Backs slowly away. Hey, nobody said anything about “dry” land. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203/25 "2010-06-16T16:02:50Z")
The George Friedman book mentioned earlier (The Next Hundred Years) is indeed an interesting look at geopolitics. He makes and rather successfully backs up the predication that Mexico, Poland and Japan will become the key players in the coming century. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203/26 "2010-06-16T20:26:10Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I seem to recall reading that Charles DeGaulle once said that Brazil was the country of the future, and always would be. Heh. There was a time in the 1970s when everyone thought that Brazil would be the next superpower. I remember it’s described as one in Frederik Pohl’s 1977 sf novel _Gateway_; the U.S., Soviet and Brazilian space navies are the strongest in the Solar System, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203/27 "2010-06-16T20:34:49Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Didn’t Atlanta become the “superpower” it is today in big part due to its central location aviation wise? Obviously its not the ONLY thing, but it does seem to suggest the OP’s author wasnt totally off base theory wise. Really, being central for the southern United States. It was the central rail hub for the South at one time, too. If you’re traveling from another region of the United States to a Southern city, whether by road, rail or air, the odds are much better of you passing through Atlanta than any other city. The phenomenon is even stronger with Chicago in the Midwest. It’s difficult to think of any sort of scenario with settling the North American continent that doesn’t involve the emergence of a large city at the southern tip of Lake Michigan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolivia-destined-to-be-a-super-power/543203.md?page=1)