It would have been a lot more interesting to explore why the US government is so resistant to any kind of reform compared to other forms of government. Especially in the last 40 years.
I suspect not having proportional representation plays a large role. New parties can't get into government, so any change has to happen inside the existing parties.
The filibuster. You need 60 Senate votes to do almost anything and for the last 40 years the only time anyone came close was Obama in 2009 which gave us the ACA.
I would venture, that the same factors which make the US resilient also contribute to its stagnation.
The US government is now the world’s second oldest government. The system of checks and balances prevents large shifts in government. The lack of realistic external competition motivates complacency. Geography, and history prevent separation.
How are we stagnating? We’re growing every year, it’s like the number one policy goal of most governments is to make the economy grow each year. 10 years ago you might get predicative spell correct for text now we have generative AI like ChatGPT. Fuck we cured sickle cell anemia and got a FDA approved treatment out like 2 years ago, and other branches of science keep trucking along.
We’re having a problem with distribution of this wealth but by no means is the US stagnating
The fortune 50 is thriving, but if you talk to a school teacher or any other “median” professional - they have seen a large quality of life decline in real dollar terms over the last 50 years.
In the public sphere, the problems I learned about in grade school are still the top problems of today… except worse. Our government has become incapable of addressing public policy issues across the entire political spectrum from school shootings to immigration reform.
Other countries have grown faster by copying from the most developed countries (and taking advantage of international trade facilitated by the US) which only works for significantly-less-developed countries.
The US was 25% of the global economy in 1960 and it is still 25% of the global economy.
>Fuck we cured sickle cell anemia and got a FDA approved treatment out like 2 years ago, and other branches of science keep trucking along.
The US's life expectancy was recently eclipsed by Cuba lol, medical science is absolutely not the field you want to try and champion as exemplary of American exceptionalism
Did I say that the US “increased life expectancy by more than other nations” or did I say “ Fuck we cured sickle cell anemia and got a FDA approved treatment out like 2 years ago…”
The person I was replying to stated that the US was stagnating. One of my counter examples was the fact that we cured a disease that was genetic and previously considered incurable, via our innovation.
What your describing is a problem but it’s not one of innovation, it a problem of wealth distribution which I also highlighted
