Yes, our government is broken, lobbyists pretty much control what happens in the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and local councils, there seems to be a declining sense of morals, lifestyles are dropping and the combination of global warming and peak oil could well usher in the Greatest Depression. Yet, seven of the top places to live in my Chapter 6 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity are in the USA. In Chapter 1, a section is titled, "The Most Powerful Nation on Earth, Ever," and another, "But, Darn It, America is the Best Country."
Frankly, we are the greatest nation ever, and stand supreme today unchallenged, militarily, economically and by any standard of measure.
Who are our competitors?
1. Well, Europe is a basket case (and, will their Euro survive?), where every sneeze by Greece sinks the stock market. Their PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) will flounder for decades. There is a growing Muslim problem, while the general negative attitude about nuclear power and coal will suffocate their economy. Their population is in the beginning stages of declination. The various countries are not taking well to austerity, for the government with one of the lower unemployment rates, the Netherlands, recently fell because decisions could not be made about budget reductions. The European Union has a larger Gross Domestic Product than the U.S., nearly $16 trillion to $15 trillion, and, furthermore, has a higher population, exceeding 500 million, whereas ours is just over 300 million. Europe will only decline into the future.
2. Japan has come and gone. Forty years ago Herman Kahn in his "Emerging Japanese Superstate," predicted that Japan would become #1. If they had anything left to overcome the bubble economy, that disappeared with the tragedy of Fukushima. Japan is now #4. For the next few decades, the country will look inwards, lamenting the horror of it all. While touting solar and wind as their future, they have little sun and meager winds. The ocean is their simple solution, but they instead are mostly importing more fossil fuels.
3. Russia was a real threat when part of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War was the one most key achievement of Humanity to insure for our future. However, the country is decaying, growing old and getting sick and tired of Vladimir Putin. Their military is embarrassingly weak. The population dropped by a couple million over the past two decades and this decline will only accelerate. By 2050 Vietnam will have more people than Russia:
However, if Russia ever goes to war, it will against....
4. China, which is running out of gas, figuratively, at least as headlined by the Star-Advertiser this morning. From declining consumer confidence, a real estate downturn, stalling exports and increasing unemployment, the country is on the verge of a crisis. Maybe the worst part of all this is that 25% of university graduates failed to find a job! 
Remember the Arab Spring? The younger generation is web savvy and, if desperate, has the smarts to undermine a regime. Yes, Google is prohibited and social networks are closely watched, but there are ways to get around the censorship. I've seen it. The central government seems pre-occupied with the quasi-religious Falung Gong, artists like Ai Weiwei (left) and blind dissident Chen Guangcheng. The overriding concern should be jobs for colleges graduates. The Bo Xilai (with wife, Gu Kailai to the right) scandal only revealed the general corruption up the ranks. I don't think the nation will fracture like the Soviet Union, but from unrest out West, where the Uiger Rebellion continues, to metastability in their stock market, horrific environmental problems and assorted humanitarian issues, I am uneasy about the stability of the country. Is the protest to the left above part of the Occupy Movement worldwide? Nope, this is China:
Well, let me end with just another view of Diamond Head. I've not truly returned until I've had lunch lounging in my recliner under a coconut tree at Magic Island. Today, I had a bento of kalua cabbage, chicken umani and rice...with a beer.
Isn't this a great country?
There remain three ocean storms, while the one in the middle, Bud, is now a hurricane at 75 MPH, and expected to make landfall as a tropical storm between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. To the East, Typhoon Sanvu is at 85 MPH and tracking the east coast of Japan, but far, far away (1000 miles south of Tokyo) and heading for Iwo To, which is also known as Iwo Jima, where our flag was flown in victory towards the end of World War II (there were nearly 30,000 deaths just during this battle):
There remain three ocean storms, while the one in the middle, Bud, is now a hurricane at 75 MPH, and expected to make landfall as a tropical storm between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. To the East, Typhoon Sanvu is at 85 MPH and tracking the east coast of Japan, but far, far away (1000 miles south of Tokyo) and heading for Iwo To, which is also known as Iwo Jima, where our flag was flown in victory towards the end of World War II (there were nearly 30,000 deaths just during this battle):
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