In addition, a larger and larger portion of a nation's GDP is now taken up by the financial industry which has gone from primarily allocating capital to busines

In addition, a larger and larger portion of a nation's GDP is now taken up by the financial industry which has gone from primarily allocating capital to businesses, to primarily using high frequency, algorithmic, and derivatives-based trading to extract wealth from the economy. The other of the U.S.'s greatest problems, healthcare, has more to do with entrenched interests and inertia of doctor education and salaries, and a middleman-based payment system preventing the formation of a actual, competitive market (except for, for example, lasik, one of the few procedures that's gotten both cheaper and better over time). Patents, too, are inertia, political leaders having a record number of years in incumbency, settling into staleness and nobody willing to make bold changes, think them up, or even listen to people who have.