years ago, and they still have not forgotten it.Sometimes one needs to back off a bit and get a global perspective to really see what is happening; the forest and the trees, etc. Their article is called “A Superpower In Decline.”
LINK TO DER SPIEGEL ARTICLE: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,726447,00.html
The American decline really began in the 1970s, but it has finally gotten so apparent that it is no longer possible to ignore. Just like when the doctor tells you that you have incurable cancer, there are evolutionary stages that one goes through. Americans are currently in the Rage stage. Anger, blind lashing out, etc. Political gridlock, road rage. We are seeing a dramatic increase in corruption among elected officials and civil servants; the same phenomenon in business. Companies no longer feel any loyalty or obligation towards their employees. Acceptance of the importance of rule-of-law is viewed as quaint, and civility has vanished. Gun ownership has grown so fast it is almost beyond the ability of gun and ammunition suppliers to cope.
The rich are getting richer (and paying lower taxes), and the poor really are growing and getting poorer. The top managers of companies now earn hundreds of times more than the actual workers, and this trend is growing. The middle class in America is dying. It could be described as the Central Americanization of North America. A significant and growing part of the population in America now only speaks Spanish. English speakers are unable to communicate with them. Health care is continuing to decline. The American Dream is no longer just tarnished, it is almost dead.
America is a long way from reaching the Acceptance stage where it might be able to rationally see what is happening and take sensible, corrective action. Between here and the beginning of healing there is going to be lots of lashing out due to our own arrogance. Currency and trade wars will have disastrous effects on the entire world's economy.
The death of a tremendous superpower like America will be felt all over the world. The Berlin wall fell and the USSR ceased to exist, and it all ended up just being a blip on the screen. The world is now so interconnected that America's woes will cause major damage in lots of other countries. At least for a generation or two America is going to be going through some very tough times.
It is possible that after that we will be able to rebuild the country into a much poorer but socially fairer place. Sort of like England or France. But there are no guarantees. One doesn't have to look far to find has-been cultures and countries which never did recover any of their former glory and are still third world countries: The Aztecs, Iran, Greece, Egypt.
Whatever happens to the country, on an individual basis the people who are most adaptable will be the survivors. The drug addicts, the alcoholics, the arrogant and uneducated, and the morbidly obese will fall along the wayside.
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