How is America not great in a way it was before?

Rudeness and greed  has become  normal in america today . Since 2001 when Bill Clinton left the White House it just   progressed through time . The infatuation of money and material things  are  more important to americans than love . 

The USA used to have a sustained record of far more foreign SALES than foreign PURCHASES, and they used to have a much SMALLER population over which to distribute that excess.  That supported a high standard of living on average (compared to the rest of the world), and all manner of manufacturing, so that the USA was a veritable department store full of any sort of product that might be found anywhere on the planet.  They didn't have to import ANYTHING from ANYWHERE.

What made it ungreat was that country after country with LOWER standards of living (and thus lower COSTS of living, enabling their workers to accept lower wages) became COMPETITORS OF THE USA, selling the same goods as the Americans at lower prices.  At first it was just Germany and Japan, but they were swiftly followed by Canada, much of the rest of Western Europe, and Mexico.  By the 1970s, the USA economy found itself on the defensive.  The USA cleverly countered this in the 1980s by liberalizing its rules for banking and for credit for US citizens and corporations.

And then came the breakup of the USSR.  The influence-contest between the USA and the USSR had been holding all of the non-nuclear (and poorer) countries in stasis.  For many different reasons (mostly having to do with the superpower contest) they were unable to compete in the international balance of trade in any meaningful way.  But as soon as that contest was over in the 1990s and 2000s, one by one, they started becoming good capitalists.  Why was that?  Because of two things:

Thing ONE:  International commerce in manufacturing became feasible in those countries because the internet made it possible for potential customers to instantly see everywhere in the world that was offering any particular product, so they could be compared on the basis of price.  It allowed instant placing of orders, instant logistical arrangements for shipping, and instant transfer of payments.  It also improved communication between ships, planes, trains, better weather information, AND it freed up the world's navies to control piracy.  So anyplace with a factory, from Bolivia to Sri Lanka to Vietnam, could now compete with the USA - AND THEY ALL HAD LOWER STANDARDS OF LIVING, costs of living, and therefor lower labor rates!

Thing TWO:  Once the American manufacturers ran out of ideas as to how to cut costs in areas other than payroll, and they realized that the labor in other countries was much cheaper, and that ALL the obstacles to running manufacturing in places like Sri Lanka was now PRACTICAL thanks to the internet - the very next thing they did was to shut down their plants in the USA, and opening the same plants in Sri Lanka, where they didn't have to pay for unions, vacations, healthcare, or plant safety!  It was the American manufacturers themselves, jumping off of an expensive, sinking ship.

The effect of these two things was that American exports dropped, influx of wealth from other countries dropped, and the standard of living in the USA began to fall.  EVERYTHING Americans owned - their cars, all their clothes, all their food - ALL were produced by AMERICAN factories and farms just 50 years ago.  Now, almost NONE of them are.  

And even as the number of Americans employed in making/raising goods has plummeted, THE POPULATION OF THE USA HAS DOUBLED!  Every year, American high schools graduate more than 3 million jobless kids.  About 1.5 million Americans VACATE a job each year, meaning America theoretically needs 3 minus 1.5 = one and a half million NEW jobs each year to stay ahead of its school output.  But its economy isn't growing new jobs - it's LOSING them.

More would-be workers every year, but far less work to be done.  More spending, but far less wealth coming in from the sale of goods to people of other countries.  THAT, in a nutshell, is what's making America not so great.  And they haven't even realized it yet, half a century after it started.  Like all flailing states, they want to blame their problems on internal minorities, unfair foreigners, and their neighbors - rather than face facts that are as obvious as noses on faces.

(And they can thank their politicians, and themselves...the ones who keep electing those same politicians...for their continuing blindness.)

The team players strived (they thought) for the betterment of the planet and for the American Dream. They worked in the military; corporations; associations; and industry. The national treasury has been plundered and the fruits of our fathers' labors have been stolen. Heroes once toiled for national treasures for posterity, and for the world's benefit. It's not nice to fool team-players. 

Who told you the USA was great in the first place? Was it Americans?

1.  Most covid cases in the world. 

2.  Most covid deaths in the world. 

3. Trump using Twitter to mock other people:  Nasty Nancy, Jeff Bozos, little Rocket Man, Bush lite. 

4.  Withdrawing from the WHO when there’s a pandemic.