I too, must sadly point out.
America is rapidly becoming a third-world country.
The business types move whatever high-paying, technical jobs they can overseas to lands of lower wages. This creates a disincentive for U.S. youth to study technical courses.
Road construction, when it is done now, takes two the three times longer, costs an insane amount of money $800,000 U.S. for a strip of two lane road of about 1000 feet. (think 3 soccer fields, end to end.) Also, is not as quality of a job as it was even when I was a boy.
Education-today's youth are more interested in fluff than stuff. As a nation, I fear we are entertaining ourselves to oblivion.
Health care-don't get me started here. My father-in-law is a doctor, and my mom was a nurse. Think rank and file folk like them were asked as to how to reform health care? Hell no! Instead, who does the decision making on what health care should be in the U.S.? Lawyers, politicians who don't have to take part in whatever systems they set up, and money-hungry pharmaceutical companies more interested in developing treatments than cures.
Immigration-people who want to come here, and improve themselves, and their families, who may not know what passes for English around here, but may want to learn it, are treated very differently from the terrorists that took down the Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon. Those guys were here with the approval of the government.. They all had valid visas. This brings me to the next topic.
Justice. It's bought and sold here by corporations and the wealthy, just like any other worthwhile commodity, leaving the poor with whatever's left. We need judges who are passionate about their jobs, and who can make wise decisions in their courtrooms. Sadly, most judges are not this way. Some blame it on the positions being elected, but that hold's no fell swoop say over the situation. The truth of the matter, is that most judges were lawyers first. With them, I can move on to the final topic.
We are now a litigious society, where anything bad is always somebody else's fault. It is to be expected with the amount of people practicing what passes for law here. And, it is the human condition to always want to appear blameless.
Ancient Rome had about 500 years. Unfortunately, my country will be lucky to see half as many.