I think you could be clearer in what precisely you are disagreeing with in the article. From my reading, the author is trying to describe the state of the US to

I think you could be clearer in what precisely you are disagreeing with in the article. From my reading, the author is trying to describe the state of the US today and struggling to find parallels in history because, while the US is productive and has lots of resources, the people have a surprisingly poor quality of life.