We are the policeman of the world. We have the brightest, most innovative thinkers. This republic/democracy is the envy of the world. We have the most significant military. Bottom line, everybody wants to be an American. Ingenuity is the stalwart of capitalism and we are most successful at showing it.
Well, that is the way it used to be. Of course we flexed military muscle when thinking would have been better. Our republic/democracy has numerous cracks, and division is the key word in a broken political system. Our capitalism has become kind of one-sided and the ‘War on Poverty’ failed as the rich got richer and the poor kind of stayed in limbo.
Racially we were and still are screwed up and our version of history is thwarted beyond belief. “Give us your poor...” that thing written on the Statue of Liberty has a hollow ring since now Americans want America for, well...Americans.
Even though we felt we saved the world during world wars and patted ourselves on the back, most of our once allies think we stink.
We developed most of the scientific/medical breakthroughs in past decades, but something is now amiss. Foreign students flocked to our universities, gain knowledge and export it back to home.
In the past decades we seem to be slipping as allies and enemies seem to be moving faster, better in many fields. We created other democracies that somehow went bad, probably because we never really had the foresight to look at what we created. We denounced colonialism, but became colonialists. We supported dictators when it was convenient, or profitable for us.
We failed to see the forest for the trees, spoke a good line, but never really followed through.
This once great nation has stumbled. We were once the tops in investing in education and in the future came in the form of reinvesting, but profits/stock values became paramount over human values.
Laws were passed to progress as our civilization grew, but soon progressiveness became a dirty word. We heaped laws upon laws to cover every foible in our path and soon law libraries were filled with every form of gibberish imagined. We legislated morality right out of being moral.
Did you know the U.S., the once envy of people, now is seventh in the world in money spent in research and development (R&D)?
According to Investopdia Israel and South Korea are the world’s leading spenders on research and development (R&D) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the latest statistics from the Unesco Institute for Statistics.
Within Asia, China is a key driver and is planning to continue ramping up spending. It has pledged to invest 2.5% of its GDP on research by 2020. This would see the country overtake the U.S. as the largest spender in dollar terms.
Our infrastructure, once the pride of the world is deplorable as highways, bridges, rail have succumbed to neglect and squeezing budgets. We have forgotten that to make money, one needs to spend money.
Yes, we still spend the most in many categories, but the $200 hammer still haunts our creativity.
Americans are becoming skittish, placing blame in every direction, blaming politics and politicians for our retreats. We believe lies because it is convenient and fits our objectives.
Meanwhile we argue over mask wearing, fake/real news formats, watching the Kardashians, what perfect woman/man will pick his crying soulmate on a fake TV show and accepting the bland and second rate.
Welcome to the new America!
