The "American Dream" is a has-been. I'm not old enough to have lived through this myself, but what I've understood the US was probably the best country to live

The "American Dream" is a has-been. I'm not old enough to have lived through this myself, but what I've understood the US was probably the best country to live in after the WWII. Some +30 years of industrial growth, start of consumerism without climate change and ecological or economical worries (and don't forget rock 'n roll!). The average joe could work a factory job and afford a house and a family. Crime rates were relatively low, income distribution was more even and generally every class of people were getting more prosperous, except perhaps the blacks and latinos who still were being discriminated against (and still are). That being said since the -70's and -80's Nixon's and Reagan's administration saw the collapse of the american dream, stagnating minimum salaries, the explosion of crime, war on drugs (that has cost billions), unprecedented bias in income distribution. The Soviet Union and communism was the new evil, US liberated it's economy. Capitalism and freedom was the answer. What could possibly go wrong when industries (such as banking) self regulate... Now US has regressed to a country where the owning class is super rich, meanwhile there's a 3rd world country juxtaposed onto itself. Enormous poverty, crime, drug abuse, social problems, racial problems and a new president whose road to power is paved with dreams like cutting back on the minimum wage etc. stupidity. On top of that you have a goverment that spies on its citizens. Event in the poorest countries the elite are always doing well. You don't judge a country based on how well the elite are doing but on how well the poor are doing.