Has America peaked?

[Beet]

I do not see America peaking unless either terrorists manage to destroy a major city with nuclear weapons, so that international financial capital moves elsewhere, or, oil prices gradually become expensive enough so that human civilization as a whole peaks. Or, until we destroy each other.

[Beet]

Depends from who's perspective you're analysing it.  From the perspective of the working class, it peaked in 1973.  Since then it has done reasonably well, but that has only benefited the top 5%.

That date also represents a social and intellectual peak as well - significantly, Roe V. Wade was decided that year.

1973 is a remarkable year. For one, it was the first full year where no person had landed on the moon since 1968, the beginnig of a 31-year drought.

But more importantly, if you look at all the growth rates for all the countries in the world and divide it between 1945 to 1973 and any significant period of time since 1973, even the late 1990s, you will find that the growth rates pre-1973 were higher, often significantly higher. You will also generally find that the productivity growth rates were higher pre-1973, despite greater job security and income equality, which is now generally associated with lackluster growth.