The Pattern of Rome

Along with Angels in the Architecture I've been reading the Southern Agrarians, hoping to find a Masters thesis idea in there. It has been enjoyable reading and has confirmed some thoughts I've had for a little while now. One of these thoughts has to do with modern parallels to the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Beginning just after the death of Domitian (AD 51-96) the Roman Empire entered into a crisis from which it would never fully recover. Diocletian (AD 244-311) and Constantine (AD 272-337) made some needed improvements that kept the Empire afloat for a while longer but nothing could really halt the building disintegration of Rome. Scholars have debated the cause of the fall of the Roman Empire for centuries. Some have, of course, located the cause in the invasions of the German tribes in the fourth century. Others have seen an economic problem as central to the collapse of Rome; a failing agrarian economy and rising unemployment. Still others have seen the collapse of the currency as essential to the demise of the imperial power.
As I've been reading the agrarians I have seen that it was not any one of these issues that finally caused the fall of Rome, but a mixture of them. Certainly barbarian invasions were the most obvious event in the 200 years of the fall of Rome. However, we must understand what created a situation where the barbarians could invade. For all intents and purposes the fall of Rome can be attributed to three sources. Failure to protect their borders. Failure to develop a balanced economy, namely agriculture and industry. Failure to stop inflation.
These three issues, working together created a collapsing situation from which even the mighty Roman Empire could not escape. Sadly, 1500 years later we have not learned these lessons. An article from the Economist several years ago showed a scary parallel between American troop dispersement throughout the world and Roman troop placement near the end of the empire. Our troops are so far flung that we can not address our own national borders we are too busy fighting little brush fires in other nations, while our own borders are overrun. However, please understand I am not against immigration, just against illegal immigration. Agriculture continues to be one of the most ignored problem spots in the American economy. The idea of the family farm has largely disappeared from the American landscape, an idea that Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus literally died for in 133-129 BC. Our current currency crisis is a direct result of inflation. The dollar buys less because the supply is too large. A old story from pre-WWII Germany can show where this can lead. The story goes that an old woman was walking down the street with a basket full of money. She stopped to look at something in a store window and when she turned around again she found that her basket had been stolen and the pile of money was left lying in the street. It can get that bad right here as well. If we don't curb some of these alarming trends, we could easily be facing the same collapse that Rome faced. And I doubt we will fare much better.