Things are not as bad in the USA as we might think. Check this excellent article by Morgan Housel:

… If I say the average family earns less today than it did in 2000, it sounds depressing. If I say the average family earns more today than it did in 1995, you get a much different view. …

Go ahead, argue that 18 years of near-stagnant real incomes is a failure. I hear you. Just realize that 2.8 billion people around the world earn less than $2 a day, and you’re upset that we aren’t richer than we were when we were already rich and felt like kings. “First-world problems,” as they say. …

I’m not arguing that inefficiencies, injustices, and inequalities don’t exist today. Of course, they do. But they always have, and by comparison, we are living in one of the most prosperous times in the history of this world.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

read the entire article – Motley Fool – Everything Is Amazing and Nobody Is Happy

title credited to Comedian Louis C.K.

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China’s Gross Domestic Product might surpass the USA before 2020. But the “influence” of the USA will surpass China’s for decades longer.

Economist – Keeping watch – Economic success has given China greater weight, but not nearly enough to tip the balance

Sooner or later the vast inefficiencies and corruption of the totalitarian Chinese State are going to become evident.