John_Cage said:... Since when were we a "world power"?
We were never ahead of China and India as a "world power". India, maybe... but China's in the UN security council, the big Five.
I think what you meant was "economic power"... In that case, Japan is the problem. China and India are raising fast, but Japan's already there (note that Japan isn't a "world power" per-se).
Membership in the U.N. security council is not exactly a measurement I would use, although i do suspect you mean permanent members, which has been noted are all atomic powers, and we won't go there.
Yes, India and China have billions of cheap labourers, but as the middle class expands, the labour will become cheaper. Will anyone be able to keep up in the meantime? I doubt it - empires come and go, they always have; the U.S. is clearly met its Waterloo in iraq, and they are fading.
Should we survive in any meaningful way into the next century (if we don't blow ourselves up, poison ourselves, or continue to fuck up the einvironment in other ways that lead to us havint to be able to tread water for expanded periods ot time), India and China will be cock of the walk for a period of time.