America is in a lot of trouble, and elites all over the world - including in the U.S. - are going to have to decide whether to stop free-riding on what previous generations built. American prestige is almost entirely used up.

America is a great land with a wonderful set of traditions, but our institutions have been collapsing since the 1970s. We may or may not pull out of this downward spiral, but the time everyone around the world could complain about the U.S. knowing we'd always be powerful is over.

Trump's argument that allies free ride on the U.S. was 100% accurate, because it was deliberate strategy set by the State Department since the 1950s to enrich the rest of the world. Germany and Japan refused to renegotiate the deal. https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/april-may-june-2019/the-old-school-answer-to-global-trade/

The U.S. collapse of prestige is real and profound since Covid started. We do not have the ability to produce what we need, or to govern ourselves. We can reconstruct this ability, but it will require protectionism and treating ourselves as a developing country.

A world without a powerful America is a much worse and much more dangerous world. Our allies do not yet know what to do to help us, or even that they might need to help us. They are too busy exploiting us.