OK.. briefly as possible..
The USA is a wonderful part of the American continent... Only me, but I doubt folks actually realise this and take it for granted.
Environmentally, the USA is also a region which is being demolished rapidly. There are many forest areas where clouds of pollution have literally killed off many 1000's of hectares - ya gotta see the before and after pics - it's damned sad. Tho this is common with some other regions on the same latitude - eg China, where they have plans to do exactly the same thing, but not implemented this fully to show the effects.
A lack of environmental policy, or one which leans towards dollar values, is extremely detrimental to the US. It's not sustainable to have an area with only 5% of the world population consuming approximately 25% of natural resources.
The US has been an innovator in many areas of technology and science, tho appears to have missed out in the manufacturing and export sectors. Manufactuing industries are now very weak.
Economically, the US has few trade surpluses. The only remaining trade surpluses are in wheat and arms. Meanwhile, imports to the US are high and causing foreign debt to build to a level which, again, is unsustainable. The US is rapidly becoming the world's major creditor and, at this time, there appear to be no solid foundation or criteria on which these loans can be repaid. Several debtor nations and companies have elected to purchase US companies/assets, tho the reasoning appears to be twofold in that debts are converted to assets and also further opening up of the US market. This trend appears to be increasing.
Taxation in the US is more of less on par with similiar highly-geared western countries. Taxation spending is in excess of tax income. There was a "tradition" over some decades to allocate approximately 30 cents of tax revenue on arms and military forces, tho this has increased over the last few years.
The channeling of tax revenues into military resources places the US outside the normal pattern of other western countries where taxpayers can personally see extra benefits for their taxation in comparison to the their counterparts in the US. This is clear from areas such as health and education.
Bottom line... The above is only a small part of the picture, but probably mentions main elements. The US is equivalent to a business in a serious financial condition and with minimum stock in the warehouse. The business is maximizing it's loans to pay it's overheads, but without a strategy to sell product to earn a profit to repay loans. On the environmental side, the business has contracted to place a mushroom cloud of pollution over it's premises. The employee benefits and pension plans are being cut or removed to avoid the business going bust. Meanwhile, competitors in the business are moving ahead at a rate where it will be hard to catch up. The management of the company are very aware of the situation, but as is not uncommon, in a state of denial.
Only my
worth, but the US very seriously needs to get a grip of the real status of the world, quit relying on cheap imports (which are not cheap in reality), forget trying to be the world's policeman for whatever reasons, start innovating and developing on a serious scale with a view to exporting and changing that killer trade balance, adopt a genuine environmental policy, get a fiscal policy moving that is sustainable and with a view to addressing the issues of it's own people as regards to health, pensions and education.
Little doubts... if there is no change, the spiral is moving downwards.
PS.. Despite that, I like the country and it's people - who couldn't?