America in Decline?

The big essay I have been working on for some time, which kind of got waylaid by RPG design - craziness.

Anyway, back to the musings on the world.

America in Decline. I keep hearing that statement again and again from many different sources of media. It seems they have all made the assessment, and they are all in agreement - yes.

But is there anyone in the world actually learned enough in the nature of the peoples and cultures of the world to make that assessment? I've come to have my doubts.

I certainly don't have that level of knowledge.

But I am more than qualified enough to rip apart the poor reasoning that those media outlets keep dredging up to make their arguements. And not only can I do so, I am going to.

Their stated arguements are many. Here is the list just those that I have heard ad-infinitum, in no particular order:

A growing addiction to beauty
Inability to prosecute even a small war successfully
A rising courseness of culture
Crumbling infrastucture
Declining wages
Declining economy
A growing lack of respect in the world
The rise of Chaina and India
Erosion of the family structure
Non-competitivenss of US children in math and science.

It's a long and disheartening list, so I'm going to ransack my way through it over a couple of posts.