Every major agricultural product has failed. Animal products aren't well sold either. American wool was an entire industry. Tobacco we know why. Alfalfa is too expensive and killing feed. Crop after crop has gone away. We have corn and soy left which we have industrialized. They make extremely low quality sugars and oils. The lowest quality of those products tbh. They're excellent for nutrition in third world countries. Not so much for developed ones and we can all look outside at our neighbors to prove that. They're huge. Obese. Horrible health markers.

The cars are overpriced and not a good product either. The manufacturers had their lunch ate in the 1980s and now they look for ridiculous margins by selling the most oversized and inefficient vehicles possible to keep themselves alive. The government is the only thing stopping their full collapse, but the consumer is still demanding small electric cars from a different country. The government can't control consumer choice.

The great wave of cannabis got zero people raised up from low wages even though it was selling like crazy.

Software engineering and hardware manufacturing are long gone and we don't need proof on that.

Music simply isn't sold on a mass scale anymore unless it's generated by a hive and sung or performed by a person who is only a prop. Absolutely zero record stores around.

Furniture? Non existent.

Clothing? Only made for Hollywood and the rest from Bangladesh or Vietnam. Haven't seen a tailor shop in a few decades.

Toys? We don't have kids that "play" anymore so toys and toy stores are long gone. Even online.

Everything my eyes point to was made better somewhere else. I think it's time to admit that the system won't get us ahead. It's not doing anything for anybody. Give it whatever name you want but its our system and it doesn't work.

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[–] 20 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Respectfully, what?

The US is the world's largest agricultural exporter, still ahead of even China and India. It's not just corn and soy: 20% of the world's beef and chicken, 70% of the world's almonds, 63% of the world's pistachios, 30% of the world's cheese, #1 barley exporter, #1 walnut exporter, #1 cotton exporter.

The US produces 70% of the world's semiconductors, 60% of global aerospace, 41% of global pharmaceuticals, 40% of global medical equipment, 39% of global media and entertainment, and 30% of heavy construction equipment. The US is #2 in auto manufacturing after China.

I don't have a particular love for US politics, but I don't let that blind me to the reality that the US is an industrial powerhouse.

And sure, we may not make a lot of furniture here, but that's because it's made in Sweden or whatever. That's globalization for ya.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 hours ago

    Ah, but OP said "we don't need proof on that" so none of that is relevant. He feels like every American industry has collapsed and failed over time.

    Stephen Colbert invented a word for this all the way back in 2005. I suspect the condition has become even more prevalent since then as social media has grown, allowing everyone to envelop themselves in a bubble of like-minded individuals who echo shared beliefs back and forth so that it seems like "everyone" agrees with them.

    I don't know that it's become more prevalent, though, since I haven't researched the topic from external sources. So don't echo this sentiment elsewhere unless you want a visit from the Irony Fairy.

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