Good. The faster Americans and the rest of the world realize that America is NOT the greatest country on Earth, and nowhere near a shadow of its former self, the better. Hopefully it happens soon and America fades into an obscure has-been. I want this country to be on par with a country like Spain in terms of world importance (no offense to Spaniards). No more world police. No more leading the world in anything. Just another follower. Can't WAIT for that to sink in.

Currently, America is the stubborn toddler having a tantrum in the middle of a room full of adults looking at it with pity.

@ 1,
I have a sneaking suspicion that the next major technological breakthrough in renewable energy is gonna come from China, India, or South Korea, and sadly it's gonna set the US back for a generation as we play catch up, much the same way as the Japanese auto industry pimp slapped the US in the late 70s.

@1 - Um, with all due respect, I seriously doubt the 'rest of the world' thinks America is the 'greatest country on Earth'... that's our conceit. We've definitely done some good things, but we've definitely done some very bad things. The rest of the world recognizes that we are the global imperial power, who can basically do whatever we want, whenever we like.

While I'm ultimately for a multi-polar world where everyone has to negotiate in good faith (in the spirit of mutual aid and voluntary cooperation), one niggling detail in all this is that once America is no longer the global imperial power, that means our money will no longer be the global defacto standard, and will probably mean it will no longer be the only currency with which everyone has to buy oil. This oft overlooked detail is a major part of what keeps our money afloat as the level it is. Once it falls from grace, things are going to get seriously hard here in the good ol' USA. We're already well on our way to being a third-world country ("the future is unevenly distributed"). That shift will clearly continue, esp with Trumpy pressing his foot to the accelerator as he+GOP points the car downhill. And once our money no longer buys oil, then that shift will happen even faster.

Can we find a way to transition down while also maintaining cohesive communities and effective economies in the demise of the national dollar? Possibly, yes. But it's going to take either work, or desperation, or both. imho.

@3,
Good point, Americans are probably the only people left who still think America is "The Greatest" (and of course, not all Americans believe that anymore either).