(Update 02-07-2025) I just realized that I wrote a much shorter version of this in Chinese here – War on terror 美国的反恐战争
(Update 02-05-2025) This post aged well. (WaPo) U.S. government officials privately warn Musk’s blitz appears illegal.
(Original 01-31-2025) America’s and Americans’ unique problems: some probably spread to the world too. My observations over the years. I have been in this country for over 27 years now. I can see the problems and it seems on political front, things are not getting better either.
Poverty issue or wealth gap widening
Refer to America poverty issue – series I
Also, the most recent election, the re-election of Donald Trump on Nov 5, 2024 seems also confirmed the widening gap of household wealth and ideology.
They Used to Be Ahead in the American Economy. Now They’ve Fallen Behind. – The New York Times (paywalled).
Trump won on the economy: what does that mean? (note its a 5 decades problem).
Overly depending on cars. Junk food. Shop until drop
(consumerism): Black Friday, Cyber Monday etc. George Carlin has a YT video on these topics, and I tend to agree.
Entitlement. American Exceptionalism… to less extent, Christian Zoinism, conspiracy theories on pandemic, covid 9 virus and vaccines. American football. A good example of American Exceptionalism is the recent news on DeepSeek AI.
Also, many US presidents, will threw their allies under the bus. Examples:
George H W Bush abandoned Kurdish allies in Iraq.
Trump likely got some CIA agents or sources killed: Russian sources disappeared after Trump declassified ex-spy’s evidence, UK court told
Tarnak Farm incident: the US acquitted the airman who bombed and killed Canadian forces (allied forces in Afghanistan). More on this, on per capita basis, Canada and Denmark suffered more than the US in terms of casualties in Afghanistan, but now the crazy guy Trump is saying he wants Canada to be 51st state of the US (in addition to the threat of tariff), also he wants the Greenland from Denmark. This somewhat reminds me of the farmer and the snake fable.
Also refer to my blog post about a year ago – The allies or partners America abandoned over the years
Political division and lack of appreciation of democracy
Blue and red states – getting worse in last 24 years, since the Bush vs Gore in late 2000. It briefly got better after September 11, 2001, but George W Bush squandered the golden opportunity and invaded Iraq for no legitimate reason.
To make things worse, the USA elected the crazy guy Donald Trump again in Nov 2024, and it shows the voters’ lack of appreciation for democracy. I think this is partially due to the ignorance of the poor people in America – understandable, but here is a YouTube video that explains from another angle – length 15:50 The games and strategy of rich people. What I learnt at Citibank.
Similarly, here are some people who quickly regret voting for Trump. This also bring up a related problem.
No long term strategy
Every presidency has 4 year term, and can serve at most 2 terms. I came to the US in summer 1997: it was Bill Clinton’s 2nd term (starting from Jan 20, 1997). On Jan 20, 2001, George W Bush took the presidency over from Clinton. And he started the war on terror shortly after the terrorist attack on US soil on September 11, 2001. But this war lasts from Bush (8 years), to Obama (8 years), to Trump 45th (4 years), to Biden (he had to withdraw the troops both due to the treaty Trump admin signed with Taliban, as well as the failure of the puppet government supported by the US),… and, btw, who do should we blame for the ultimate failure of Afghanistan war (and the monetary loss associated with it)? Let’s just say they all failed.
American not-so-helpful mindset
Not my fault, such as this one
https://x.com/AmyMcGrathKY/status/1884840465867956671 (also why does he knows everything, plus he needs to express opinion on everything)
Not in my back yard (NMBY): if someone wants to setup a homeless shelter, or high-density housing. This is very common problem, and actually not a US only problem. This is just a local example. I drove by this place often and saw the yard signs from both sides.
Drug problem
This is also a problem of “blame others instead of self-examine or self-reflect”. In a way it’s similar to the victim mentality. Both are not helpful.
I don’t know how long this web page will exist – both are US government web pages: but it seems the new admin is purging a lot of web pages in the government websites.
(CDC) Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2003–2023
Products – Data Briefs – Number 522 – December 2024
(NIH) Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures
Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Btw, the American drug problem is a symptom of the society’s problems: it’s definitely not only on Mexico’s Cartel or the supply of raw material from China. If the Americans don’t take Fentanyl, the drug trade from Mexico will be cut in half. But it’s much easier to blame on others, and the new and dumb president started to apply additional tariffs because of this.
Stupidity
This is not unique America problem too. But along the lines with lack of education, etc., here is a good example. Similarly, years ago when I was working for Mastercard loyalty program, once a gentleman would call the customer service once a day, and ask for point adjustments. The account manager eventually asked me to give him points worth about 13 cents: it took me 2 hours to do it.
Here is another example: in addition to people elected a con man Trump to the presidency, Trump just made Paula White as Head of the White House Faith Office.