Though our deaths by lawn mower lead is probably safe, the United States is stagnating, lagging and falling behind in many areas. Any tenuous connection between the status of the US and racial or gender movements have been disproven by trends since the great recession. The most likely explanation for our plight is the 4 decade long giveaway to upper income brackets in the guise of supply-side or trickle-down economic policies pushed by Republicans.
All of the information herein is readily available and most of it has been widely reported. There will be a lot of figures and links to sources. Some of the information is several years old, but that is what is available for large and complex data sets. If anything, Republican control of the White House and Congress has magnified the problem and is threatening attempts to improve America undertaken during the Obama administration.
The objective is to see if trends over time support explanations based on racial, gender or economic divisions. The great recession allows for differentiating of the factors. Wealth inequality continued increasing, while gains of minorities and women were curbed, at best. Taken together, the highlighted trends disprove the notion that support for minorities and/or women hurts the US. Meanwhile, wealth inequality keeps growing while the status for Americans continues to stagnate or decline.
Now, let’s look at the data.
Quality of life
Geographically, there are significant differences across the US is how well people are doing as measured by a suite of economic and quality of life indicators. I’ll leave the apparent association with Democratic or Republican representation and policies for others. Two possible responses are that we need to get Republican districts to implement more Democratic policies, or that Democratic districts are being unfair to others and should be forced into the same policies as Republican districts. I favor the former, while our Congress seems to be pushing the latter.
Pollution
Our air is much cleaner, even with increases in GDP and population, though we have yet to curtail carbon emissions.
Water quality is more of a mixed bag, with declines and improvements seen across locations for many key indicators.
Infrastructure
There are many roads and bridges in need of repair, though the conditions are not as dire as Trump proclaimed during his campaign.
As for passenger trains, the United States is pathetic and is increasingly falling behind. We will continue to rely on planes for long distance trips for the foreseeable future.
Energy and emissions
The United States is near the top of countries in adoption of renewable energy sources. However, we are ceding leadership to other countries while we remain atop the list in per capita energy consumption. and we remain high on the list of greenhouse gas emitters thanks in part to our continued reliance on cars and planes.
Computer technology
The United States leads in internet access, but our speeds are falling behind other countries. Perhaps a more important consideration is what we are doing with that technology other than watching Netflix and Youtube. We are not using it to build a lead in programming and development skills.
Upward mobility
In the United States, there is less upward and downward movement between economic classes than in other countries. Furthermore, given the relationship between education and economic mobility, mobility has decreased in the US since 1940. Plus, these differences in mobility between generations are associated with income inequality. The more unequal the wealth, the harder it is to change your economic status.
Economic Inequality
Income and wealth inequality is high in the United States compared to other countries, and it has been growing for over 30 years. This trend in inequality is associated with increasing political polarization. Interestingly, inequality is also increasing in other countries. whether these trends are associated with political instability or polarization internationally is beyond the scope of this report.
Overall, trends in the environment, infrastructure, technology and upward mobility can be associated with the continuing trend in income inequality. We are treading water or declining in many key areas while the rich keep getting richer.
Some blame our inability to remain on top, whatever that means, on government efforts to improve the conditions for minorities and women. So, let’s take a look at these trends.
Trends for minorities and women
Income varies by race and gender. There have been negligible gains for African Americans and little more for women, so white men still have significantly better pay checks.
Plus, these trends did not carry through the economic crash of 2008. Any arguments that helping minorities and women hurts the country or economy have been falsified by the reversal of median incomes for all categories while the rich continue to get richer.
Conclusion
After looking at the data, it is apparent that the United States is still a world leader that is near the top of many key indicators of development. Predictions of our imminent demise are premature. Nevertheless, we have lost some of our advantages over other countries. This is not necessarily bad. We can all improve and get better together, across the globe. However, failure to maintain our leadership across the board, as well as stagnation or declines in the economic plights of lower classes has been attributed by conservatives as resulting from measures to help minorities and women. The crash of the late aughts has proven that these arguments are false. In the meantime, economic inequality continues to grow. This trend remains as a possible explanation for stagnation and declines in the other indicators outlined here. In addition, there are many other indicators that could be assessed. The falsification of gender and race explanations remains for the indicators here, while economic inequality might further explain trends in other indicators.
Increases in economic inequality are due to continued Republican efforts to institute supply side economics. Even though this has not worked in the past, and even with investors admitting that they will keep most of the gains for themselves, Republicans continue to pass legislation that is favorable to higher economic classes. This calls their judgement and honesty into question. Do they really believe that they are helping the poor and middle class, or are they just saying what they know people want while they act in the interest of their rich benefactors?