“The United States of America is an empire now,”
An empire with the trade profile of a third world colony whose main product is raw materials. A far cry from the industrial powerhouse that could convert its thousands of manufacturing plants to war production when it was needed.
Some fat slob in a family where nobody has held a job in four generations actually lives better in the U.S. today than the workers -- and even the captains of industry -- in that "industrial powerhouse" you describe. I don't know if that means we're better off today, but you really can't dispute any of this.