Life in America is getting worse: "out of 163 countries assessed worldwide, the United States, Brazil and Hungary are the only ones in which people are worse off than when the index began in 2011." Hmm what do these three have in common? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/opinion/united-states-social-progress.html

To be clear, these issues were not created by Donald Trump. But all of the problems that predated him also helped to make him president.

What stands out how America is the best at the tippy-top but absolute garbage the rest of the way down: At the top tiers of higher education, we're phenomenal; otherwise, we're total crap at educating our kids. Our medical innovations are amazing, but healthcare generally sucks.

This creates a system where we can tell a story about ourselves that says "we're the best!" even when it clearly doesn't match up with most people's' reality. And we can promise that the comfortable and ever-smaller top is accessible to everyone -- if you only work hard enough.

How sad is it, though, that the things we now consider aspirational -- an excellent education, excellent healthcare -- are available to most people in our peer nations, but only a lucky few in the U.S.?