- 3 weeks ago
From global superpower to struggling nation - we're examining how the United States is facing serious challenges on multiple fronts. Our countdown includes waning global influence, crumbling infrastructure, democratic backsliding, and more! Do you think these trends can be reversed, or is America following in Ancient Rome's footsteps? Let us know in the comments!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00America has a math problem.
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for 10 ways in which the United
00:07States has transformed from Reagan's shining city on a hill to a cautionary tale for the world.
00:13And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can't sink.
00:19Global influence waning. For much of the 20th century,
00:22the United States stood as the undisputed global leader.
00:25Like it or not, we are the leader of the free world.
00:29It was the glue holding the post-World War II order together.
00:33America set the cultural, political, and economic tone for the world.
00:37Today that dominance is slipping.
00:39China's influence on the world stage has been growing and America's
00:42has been declining. It seems to have accelerated in the last few months.
00:47Rising isolationism and abrupt trade wars have eroded international trust.
00:52Allies question US commitments in NATO and climate accords.
00:56Rivals like China sense opportunity and are filling the vacuum on the global stage.
01:01Once seen as the model for democracy, the US now finds its image tarnished by popularization.
01:07The change is tangible. International tourism has fallen sharply.
01:11The World Travel and Tourism Council says America is on track to lose 12.5 billion dollars
01:17in international visitors spending this year. America doesn't seem as safe or as welcoming as it used to.
01:23Expensive visa fees, tougher screening, and anti-immigration sentiment scare off many would-be tourists.
01:30We need to let travelers around the world know that we want their business.
01:33Demographic aging crisis. America is graying fast. About 18% of Americans are 65 or older today.
01:41By 2030, that number will climb to almost one in five.
01:45In about a third of states, more than half of the population is older than 40.
01:49Four years later, seniors will outnumber children under 18 for the first time in US history.
01:54A shrinking workforce means fewer taxpayers to fund Social Security and Medicare.
01:59We have very significant increases in benefits on the horizon, but we haven't planned for those with increases in taxes.
02:07Hospitals and nursing homes already face staffing shortages as demand grows.
02:11Families are getting squeezed on both ends. Childcare costs remain prohibitive for much of the public.
02:18Eldercare is becoming just as necessary and as expensive.
02:22So we saw our savings dwindle and dwindle and dwindle.
02:26Rural towns feel the sharpest strain, with aging populations outpacing available services.
02:32This is a demographic time bomb that could cripple the US economy.
02:36Care shouldn't be a political issue.
02:38We should be looking at the life cycle of care that citizens need from birth through end of life.
02:45Dropping life expectancy.
02:47For the first time in generations, Americans are living shorter lives.
02:52US life expectancy fell to just over 76 years in 2022.
02:56And now dozens of countries are surpassing the US, including Lebanon, the Czech Republic and Cuba.
03:03Only three years earlier, life expectancy was nearly three years longer.
03:07The pandemic accelerated the drop, but it was already underway.
03:11Rising rates of heart disease, diabetes and gun violence are all part of the story.
03:16Well, health is about more than health care. And as a doctor, I often have to emphasize that.
03:21The most devastating factor is the opioid crisis, which now kills more than 80,000 Americans a year.
03:27The FDA's failure to regulate powerful painkillers unleashed an epidemic that still devastates communities.
03:33The companies clearly knew what was happening. They knew exactly where their pills were going.
03:38Compared to other wealthy nations, America lags in life expectancy by years.
03:43A society once defined by longevity now struggles to keep its people alive.
03:48Individual responsibility is certainly one area. Second, providing health care systems and adequate
03:55services to assist people so that they will live to old age.
04:00Crumbling infrastructure. If infrastructure acts like the arteries keeping people,
04:05goods and services flowing, America is on the verge of a heart attack.
04:09Imagine a month-long blackout. Imagine major failures of the water delivery system in the West.
04:18Imagine levee breakdowns that can't be repaired.
04:21Roads, bridges, water systems and power grids built decades ago are breaking down.
04:26The American Society of Civil Engineers gives U.S. infrastructure a C-grade, with storm weather and
04:33transit earning Ds. Even after a $1 trillion federal investment,
04:38streets remain pitted with potholes. More than 46,000 bridges are structurally deficient.
04:43In the next 10 years, over 50% of our bridges will be over 50 years old.
04:48We're kind of heading towards a perfect storm.
04:51Congestion costs commuters billions of hours every year.
04:55Water systems leak enough to waste trillions of gallons annually.
04:58This raging torrent on a commuter highway was the result of a water main break.
05:04In this case, a break in a 66-inch pipe.
05:08Experts warn the decay is more than an inconvenience, it's a national security threat.
05:12A nation once defined by its interstate highways and engineering marvels,
05:16now struggles just to keep the lights on.
05:19A 100-year event in 2000 will look like a 10-year event in 2050. The reality is we're essentially living in borrowed time.
05:28Uncontrollable national debt.
05:30The United States is drowning in red ink. The national debt hit a record $37 trillion in 2025, more than the entire annual GDP.
05:40There's no shortage of voices sounding the alarm about the national debt.
05:44America's borrowing levels are currently the same size as the entire economy and are expected to skyrocket from here.
05:51Interest payments alone are projected to surpass defense spending within a decade.
05:55That means fewer resources for schools, infrastructure or disaster relief.
06:00Both parties have piled on costs through tax cuts, wars and pandemic aid without reining in spending or raising revenues.
06:08The Tax Foundation estimates that a 10% universal tariff could bring in trillions of dollars,
06:13but that revenue would diminish when accounting for the broader economic impact.
06:18Public alarm is rising. 72% of Americans now see the debt as a major threat to the nation's future, according to Pew.
06:25Economists warn that rising interest rates make this spiral harder to escape.
06:30The thing about the national debt is it affects basically everything in our economic lives and then some,
06:35but we don't see it, we don't feel it, and many people don't realize it.
06:38What was once a distant worry is now a lit powder keg sitting at the heart of the U.S. economy.
06:43Let's face it, it's not likely the U.S. government debt is going to be paid back anytime soon.
06:49Extreme political polarization. America is fracturing along ideological lines.
06:56Democrats and Republicans no longer just disagree, they increasingly see each other as the enemy.
07:01America is in a very angry moment. Republicans attack Democrats and Democrats return fire.
07:08Pew finds that around two-thirds of Americans view the opposing party negatively,
07:12the highest in modern history. The divide isn't only political, it's cultural, geographic, and generational.
07:19Younger voters are half as likely to say that patriotism is an important value.
07:23They're half as likely to say that America is the best place that they'd want to live.
07:29They're much more concerned about capitalism and see more promise in socialism.
07:34That polarization has eroded a shared sense of American identity and patriotism.
07:40National holidays and symbols no longer unify the way they once did. At the same time,
07:46faith in the system itself has collapsed.
07:48Oh, these beloved politicians are having actual debates about the filibuster because they care
07:52about Senate traditions. No one at home believes that.
07:55Only 4% of Americans say the political system is working well. Majorities across both parties believe
08:01it's utterly broken. A system intentionally designed to be slow in 1787 cannot keep up with modern needs.
08:10I sort of think that it's going to be hard for us to turn things around in America.
08:15Democratic backsliding. American democracy is under visible strain. It may even be on the verge of snapping.
08:22The latest alarm bell is an NGO report that lists the United States for the first time ever as a
08:28backsliding democracy. Scholars warn of democratic backsliding, a gradual erosion of checks and norms
08:35that safeguard free government. States have moved to limit ballot access and reshape election administration.
08:41Partisan gerrymandering entrenches power and distorts representation, dulling the impact of majority rule.
08:47It's wrong because here we are in minority, majority state, but yet the majority of the people, right,
08:55don't have any kind of representation. On a national level, President Trump has set America on a collision course
09:01with fascism. He spread false claims about the 2020 election and pressured officials to overturn results.
09:07I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more that we have.
09:17Because we won the state. Worse, he openly pledged to use his second term to punish opponents and weaken
09:24institutions. He is on pace to keep his promises. A country that once exported democracy abroad now
09:31faces urgent questions about whether it can preserve its own. You know you're living in a fascist society
09:38when you're constantly going over in your head the reasons why you're safe. What we want
09:48is a country where none of us have to feel that way. Children left behind in education. The classroom
09:55is in crisis. NAEP shows steep drops in reading and math scores, reaching multi-decade lows.
10:01The results are sobering. Public schools remain underfunded and teachers overburdened,
10:07leaving millions of kids behind. American science is slipping as China surges in publications,
10:12patents, and clinical trials. The culture needed to support educational excellence is fraying too.
10:25Only 16% of Americans read for pleasure in 2023, down from 28% in 2004.
10:31Because let's face it, even if we're people who really like to read, compared to doing other things,
10:36the act of reading is really boring.
10:37Amid this decay, a new threat looms. Researchers warn that uncritical reliance on generative AI
10:45to crank out essays or answers is a danger to our students. It can erode creativity and critical
10:52thinking skills. It's not going to benefit a student to present a picture of themselves that's
10:57inauthentic, that's just not true in some cases, because then you don't land in the right place.
11:03A country is incapable of international leadership if its children can't keep up.
11:08Crippling mental health epidemic. America is in the middle of a mental health emergency.
11:14Nearly one-third of adults now report symptoms of anxiety or depression.
11:18We have become professionals at putting on masks on and walking around society and making it seem
11:24like everything is going fine, like we don't need any help, that there's nothing to see here.
11:29We do that in person, we do that on our social media feeds.
11:32But what it betrays is the reality of what's happening is that a lot of people are walking
11:36around suffering.
11:37At the same time, access to mental health care is, for many, virtually non-existent.
11:43Nearly 130 million Americans live in areas with too few providers.
11:47We really wanted to understand why is it that even when you have insurance,
11:52it can be so hard to access mental health treatment. And what people don't realize is that
11:57insurance companies play a big role in this and have a big say in how much treatment you get.
12:02Most states meet less than 40% of their mental health care needs. America's health insurance
12:07system makes treatment financially impossible for millions. Children and teens are struggling too,
12:14with psychologists calling youth mental health a sustained crisis.
12:17How long have the waitlist been to get help?
12:20Normally you're put on, you're scheduled an appointment within a few months.
12:26Months?
12:26Yeah. And then if you want a child psychiatrist,
12:30you're looking at like months to a year.
12:32The public is fully aware of the problem. 90% of Americans say the nation faces a mental health crisis.
12:39Therapy use is up, but desired outcomes aren't. By nearly every measure, well-being continues to decline.
12:46Even though the problems that we've described here and the drivers of those problems are really profound
12:52and entrenched and structural in nature, that doesn't mean that we as individuals can't make
12:57a difference in the mental health and well-being of people around us.
13:00Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about
13:05our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
13:10If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.
13:16Inequality is out of control. America has become a nation of extremes.
13:21It's the wealthiest nation on earth, but the distribution of that wealth is more concentrated
13:25at the top than ever before. The rich appear to be getting richer,
13:29and it may be at the expense of everyone else. The rich are just getting richer,
13:33pulling away from everyone else. The top 10% of households now command nearly 70% of the nation's
13:40wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom half holds almost nothing. Student debt has become a modern-day
13:46shackle. $1.6 trillion is owed, locking millions of young people out of careers, homes, and families.
13:53In July, an estimated 1.8 million people are at risk of defaulting on their student loans,
14:00meaning they haven't made a single payment in nearly nine months.
14:04Housing, once the cornerstone of the American dream, has turned into a trap. Rents swallow
14:10paychecks, and homeownership drifts out of reach. The dream of upward mobility is fading,
14:15replaced by a reality where opportunity is scarce and prosperity is hoarded by the few.
14:21Unless we can get an accurate number of just how prevalent poverty is in the United States.
14:26Attempting to eradicate it is close to impossible. Are there other factors that point to America
14:32going the way of ancient Rome? Can the trends be reversed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments
14:37below. About 42% of high schoolers say they constantly feel sad or hopeless. That's up more than 50% from 1999.
Recommended
1:58
|
Up next
0:47
21:52
20:56
12:37
14:10
30:21
10:48
2:58
13:58
16:27
2:40
1:14
1:29
Be the first to comment