All that money available to the US and yet its all gone so very wrong, why is this?
The Americans are more wasteful, myopic and foolish than others precisely because they have so much money. Innovation, adaptation, efficiency, etc. is driven by pressure — economic, strategic, etc. — and the Americans face very little. Ergo, they become fat, lazy and irresponsible, blundering from one debacle to the next (Afghanistan, F-35, etc.) without ever learning very much. In contrast, the Swedes — to go to the other end of the spectrum — are smart because the alternative is to be dead.
The real issue for America in this respect, however, is not the present but the future, in that their politico-cultural hang-ups (e.g. belief in American exceptionalism, reflexive militarism, corporate corruption of government, etc.) are and will continue to hamstring them in adapting to changing circumstances (economic, geopolitical, technological, etc.) raising the possibility that America will only learn and adapt to a changing world the same way most nations have throughout history — through suffering and defeat.
Defeat short of annihilation is the most powerful impetus for change — witness the transformation of the US Army post-Vietnam. Victory, in contrast, breeds complacency.
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