Our standard of living dropped and our middle class shrunk. Compared to others world wide, we no longer are the leader we once were.
That is true for our GDP, industry, high tech, life expectancy, standard of living when compared to others.
The US after WWII was 1/3 of the global economy, today it’s 1/5. China is the world’s largest manufacturing base by a long shot...
We are not #1 in life expectancy, not even #2, or #3... We are at place 11 on the world stage!
For years people have been ringing the alarm bell that we are an empire in decline, that the policy decisions are non-growth oriented, socially destructive.
The fruits of these destructive social and economic policies have come to bear, we have squandered our wealth and much of our leadership role.
Post WWII we were not only in a global leadership position, we were extremely blessed (not destroyed, resource rich, lots of industry...). We wasted much of that away.
We are in decline, only a bit slower than our Euro allies.
Hence the problem-
we lead the world in bringing difficult pregnancies to life-
this lowers our life expectancy dramatically.
we have the highest survival rates for the 12 most common forms of cancer.
Our standard of living is unparalleled across the board.
US invented agritech which then largely ended famine.
The world cannot exist w/o Silicon Valley, the USD, US medical R & D, the global financial system, N et al ad infinitum. US manufacturing is at 1965 levels-it’s shrunk that much! Outsourcing to avoid pollution controls, labor laws etc....is not new in the slightest. China leads the world in renewables and nothing else state of the art. Much of China still has no power or running water.
The US is $200,.000,000,000,000 in debt/unfunded liabilities with no replacement for the USD even existing.
For years people have been sounding the alarm meanwhile the US is the only super power left on earth.