No, America is not collapsing
I think &quot;muddling&quot; in the subtitle is a key point, because that&#x27;s exactly how things are going. These reversions, due to in effect religious fundamentalism and pandering to what I only <i>hope</i> are minority crowds emboldened by gerrymandering and the electoral college, are concerning. The U.S. will continue to stagnate if all we ever discuss and rabble about are fringe issues. Why is abortion literally a major topic in every presidential election over decades? Abortion is a tough issue no matter what, and so a compromise is needed. There will never be a totally clean solution. Why are people so damn concerned with decisions others make? In Texas, last time I looked, <i>anybody</i> can initiate a lawsuit against a doctor on abortion related issues, making doctors frozen due to legal worries and even reverting to communicating on paper notes that they then throw away. It&#x27;s insane. We&#x27;re taking decision making from the educated and giving it to the uneducated.<p>Education in the country is a major concern and has domino effects that take decades to correct, but the more the less educated come into power, the harder it gets to revert. And we&#x27;re trending in the wrong direction.<p>I also think the section on inequality is greatly misleading. Inequality keeps getting worse and worse by basically any measure. Picking out any data over the past two years is likely to be very, very biased, because the economy has been wildly swinging back and forth. Data can be picked to basically back up any position. The middle class is getting absolutely hammered by taxes while the rich just keep on keeping on in a tax-free world not experienced by others.<p>&gt; Bloomberg reports that the world’s richest 500 people have lost a total of $1 trillion this year.<p>I can&#x27;t view the article, but aren&#x27;t those &quot;losses&quot; likely to be paper losses, i.e., unrealized losses? When lower and middle class people have losses, they are realized. People lose jobs, money, homes, etc. Rich people &quot;losing&quot; money in the various markets and their investments continue to reap dividends and other monetary gains and will eventually recuperate.<p>Articles like this are akin to burying one&#x27;s head in the sand and consist of cherry-picked data to say everything&#x27;s okay.