I don’t know the last time this guy priced out a used car or a kitchen renovation but it must have been quite a while.
1. Industrialization of Asia and factory automation
2. The rise of efficient agriculture in 3rd world countries and the consolidation of American farms into big companies that also increased productivity through automation.
True, Trump was incompetent because his policies only worsened a bad situation. But he alone isn't the problem.
And there isn't too much the US government can do to revert this economic decline. The solution, if there is one, has to come from innovation from the private economy.
Without a big change, the U.S. will only become more socially and politically unstable and more dangerous for itself and the world.
Why? The problems of offshoring, consolidation, automation, you described came from private sector incentives (not to mention debt driven consumption, and turning basics like housing, healthcare, and education into profit centers)
Why would those same incentives magically fix the problem on their own?
> And there isn't too much the US government can do to revert this economic decline
This is ahistorical. The post great depression economy that led to the “American Dream” was supported by huge public spending and actions by the government [1]. Revitalization happened before, it can happen again.
So much came from FDR/New Deal, social security, labor law, housing finance, banking regulation, securities regulation. Saying the US government can't really do that much is ridiculous.
[1] https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-frank...
These Americans (I hesitate to call them people) refuse to hold their leaders accountable for everything, they sit and watch as 07' is applied to every asset class and ask for the boot shoved down their throat. They'll even clap, after movies, but also after their leaders add 100%+ tariffs on Chinese EVs. Can't have anything threaten their debt addiction.