Ohio

Umair Haque in 2020 told us as much. While we were getting our "news" from Zuckerberg and Musk, others were actually paying attention:https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/queensbirthday/audio/2018748791/umair-haque-is-america-really-screwed

"I keep getting this question from Americans: How did we get here, and can we do anything about it? And I don't think that we can now I think it's too late."
Public health, public education and a paid retirement, which are taken for granted in many countries, are now beyond America's reach, Haque says.
"America never invested in those things. The rest of the rich world began to invest in those things from the '50s through to the '70s and now pretty much everyone enjoys that. America was the only one that didn't invest in those things.
"Can America write a social contract in which the average American enjoys those things? When you look at the economics the hard truth is that 80 percent of Americans now live pay check-to-pay check. Right on the edge of perpetual financial catastrophe.
"So, we come along and say 'sure you can have what the rest of the world takes for granted, all you have to do is pay an extra 10 to 20 percent in taxes'. The problem is they can't afford it."

He goes on to say: One of things that has happened in America is that because the white American majority is so racist, they didn't understand that the consequences of their racism was going to be their own impoverishment a few decades later."

The Reaganite "counter-revolution" of the 1980s was underpinned by racism, he says.
"It said we don't have to build any public goods - healthcare, retirement education - all of these things.
"And a lot of that was driven by white people thinking I won't invest in them, I'm not going to pay for those kids' schools, those peoples' retirement.
"Those 'people' of course being black, brown, Asian, Mexican whatever - other people.
"As a result of that kind of thinking, a few decades from then, they themselves wouldn't have things like public healthcare, education, retirement, public transport because those things, either all the society has them, or nobody does."