Government’s role in the USA is income redistribution. This creates massive disincintives to work hard and save and a huge incentive to sign up to be on the receiving end of the redistribution gravy train.
Layer in massive immigration based on a lottery system rather than the merrits of the applicant, plus even larger inflows of illegal immigrants who have no interest in joining the melting pot (yet who are eligible for a full range of government services).
On top of that weigh in the fact that the public school system is in a state of total dysfunction and is unable to prepare children (imigrant or native born) for the reality of global labor competition.
And a political / social climate that puts ideology ahead of objective thinking – resulting in ebonics, creation science, bans on stem cell research, racial quotas, gender quotas, pointless wars, Nifong, bloated prison populations, ethanol fuel, 60% divorce rates, etc, etc. etc.
Add to all that the reality that wealth concentration is accellerating.
Fast forward the trend lines a few decades and you have BRAZIL. In 2050 the USA will look like Brazil in its demographc and economic composition. The middle class is already dead.
