Is the USA becoming a 'failed state'?

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https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ns/610261/

https://theconversation.com/is-america- ... ink-139680

A couple of interesting articles on this. So what do you guys think?

The way I see it, the US is currently facing several fundamental problems:

An immature political culture: The United States is a relatively young country which hasn't really dealt properly with its its past - current events speak for themselves. At the same time, the country is running massive deficits spurred on by a combination of excessive expenditure *and* excessive tax cuts, and there is little political will in Washington to realistically address this imbalance.

No "Social Contract": There is a fundamental absence of shared values in the US. A lot of countries managed to formulate strategies for bringing the entire nation (education, health, business, employment etc.) forward during the 20th century. The German Wirtschaftswunder is a good example, as are the growth miracles in South Korea, Japan and perhaps even China after 1978. No such consensus exists in the US. Instead, political polarization has been increasing.

Political and military overstretching: The US has fallen into the same trap as so many other hegemons before it: It doesn't have the resources to maintain its global dominance in the long run, but it keeps trying nonetheless. Picking a fight with China in China's own backyard (the South China Sea is approx. 16,000 kilometres from the US) is currently the best example.

However, I don't see these as signs of a Failed State... But I find it somewhat unlikely that the US can successfully solve its massive domestic challenges and maintain its international prominence at the same time...

And I agree with the first article: None of this was caused by the coronavirus... It just made those winds blow even harder...

I have to wonder what will become of us 10 years from now? Our future is looking bleak...

Looks like it is slowly turning into a 3rd world country.

Until the 2016 election, I would have said no. If Trump wins a second term - and with Russian help, thus making us a Russian satellite state - then I think a good case could be made for American greatness as a thing receding in the rearview mirror.

I personally don't believe America was ever that great to begin with but I believe things are going to get a lot worse. We are going to see unthinkable things happen in this country soon.

I have a degenerative neurological condition called spinocerebellar ataxia. It’s super rare, so those of us who have it sometimes become close online friends.

One of the people I used to talk to a lot was a girl from Kenya. She was working in Dubai in an office job. She had just started her ataxia symptoms, but she had a sister back home in Kenya who was much worse, and had already become completely dependent on family. This is what I learned from that girl, who was very pretty, very smart, and had a bachelors degree.

In Dubai: Racism was open, blatant, and slavery was not uncommon. Africans were not regarded as being as human as Middle-Easterners and Whites (from any country). They were perhaps third class people. Asians were second class. Middle Easterners and Whites were first class.

In Kenya: A person who is seriously disabled is at the mercy of their families. They have no individual rights. If their families are good people, their families will suffer greatly from them as a burden. If the families are not supportive, the disabled person will die before their time so the family can do better.

Here in the US I am able to live fully independently. I have resources and opportunities that people in other places would only dream of. No matter which political party is in control, this is a great place to live. I feel fortunate.

"Have nots" probably think so.

"Haves" probably think it's the best.

Chomsky has been saying that for a while - the US is failing to allocate resources to where they are needed, the infrastructure is crumbling, and politics has become a spectacle, where the "left" option has become as "left" as reagan, and the conservative option means racing straight towards a climate catastrophe that is likely to spell the end of organized human life on the planet.

I agree.

Amazing how much the USA has in common with Ancient Rome. I have to wonder whose bright idea it was to model our society after a failed empire that was doomed to collapse into such a disaster? Did our forefathers honestly believe we would not repeat the same mistakes?

The USA is hardly a failed state in the same way that Somalia is, however having been the presumptive "leader of the free world" since WWII we have now become a laughing-stock, which to me means that we need to change something.

I personally feel that the US should retire its current Constitution. The Constitution served us well, but we have gotten to a point where a religion-like cult has arisen, whereby passages in the Constitution are treated like Gospel, in particular the infamous 2nd Amendment. Defending this Constitution has started to take precedence over guaranteeing basic human rights. And like all religions, leaders are free to interpret the Constitution however they want, and not need to defend those interpretations to others. Our President is absolutely the most devout defender of the Constitution who ever lived, according to his supporters, which justifies everything he does. It doesn't seem impossible to me that we will soon see people thrown into prison for questioning especially sacred parts of the Constitution.

I don't know if this would be ideal, but I think the USA would be better off at this point as a Confederation. Yes I know we abandoned that idea 233 years ago as a failed experiment, but times change. Of course this would only happen as a consequence of some serious unrest and bloodshed, but unrest and bloodshed seem far more possible than 20 years ago.

Like the UK, the USA is nowhere near being a "failed state," but in both cases the leadership keep acting like the ultimate goal is to become one. Both countries had pretty strong economies and national institutions before their current governments started chipping away at them.

And ironically once we reach that point you know Americans are still going to insist that we are the most 'free' country in the world...

Yeah to stay free we need to come down hard on those who publicly oppose our most sacred freedoms!