Has America been declining since the days it started?

Yes and no.

We have been declining as a nation significantly over the last 100 years. Before that it was slower.

The best system of people-organization and government we've found as a human race is captialism. In fact, it's the only system that has been able to consistently pull average people our of poverty and into a productive, growing society.

The problem with our country is that they allowed us to ammend our Constitution. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, and it probably was a good idea in theory, but we've butchered our Constitution beyond repair as a result.

The Constitution specifically called for a limited federal government that gives us defense of our liberties... only. In other words, it's only supposed to supply a military for defensive purposes... and that's all. And the only money was to be gold and silver.

Allowing our federal government to get their fingers invoved in every aspect of our lives has been catastophic. When big business gets involved with government, you have what Mussolini termed as "corporatism".... but what he really was referring to is "fascism".

That's what we are today. Fascists. We live in a fascist dictatorship, and Bush is our dictator... for now. It'll be someone else soon. (I hope.)

You cannot allow the government to get involved with everything like we have in a capitalist society. Pretty soon, all the politicians are bought and sold many times over, so there is no chance they are going to do what's best for the average American people.

We should get the government out of education, energy, banking, health care, transportation, environmental conservation, nation-building, emperialistic conquest, and everything else they are involved in.

The Constitution was wonderful when they wrote it. We should've just left it alone.

Our politicians don't listen to us now. They listen to big international corporations who line their pockets. Case in point... the border. We're all screaming for them to secure it, and they take every step they can to make it more open. Sickens me.

Everybody had a chance to vote for Ron Paul, but they blew it. Oh well... see you in the soup line. Or the camp.

The USA no matter how government would have always been powerful, its huge, with lots of resources and people would have flocked anywhere to to start anew.

The thing that the USA has not done well is look after its own people and only thinking for its self (sounds weird)

But think about, NO NATIONAL HEALTH CARE, thats f upped right there

YOU CAN BUY GUN EASILY, that is soo dumb, jfk great man, gun killed him, soo there

after about half a century of mucking up the world the USA is in deep now Afghanistan , Iraq, pretty much the whole middle east they screwed up.

Their great support to Israel as it blows up everything and doesnt aobay international law.

Its not a bad nation, just a errors that, because of its power have become bigger errors

It tickels me pink, when I read about people believing the USA has the highest standard of living.

As a matter of fact, there are over 20 nations which have a higher or equal one.

The USA got rich cutting down the trees of an entire continent and selling them to Europe. Then in the mid 19h Century, driven by European immigrants with high education, the industrial revolution found a land, not worn out like Europe from overpopulation.

Now, the USA is just a lawless playground for white collar crime, the likes of Enron and Co. and excess Military Industries.

The new SuperPower is again Europe, with Germany in the lead. The USA had its day

Europe GDP - 17 Trillion

USA GDP - 14 Trillion

The United States reached it's zenith in the years following World War 2. It's decline started with the Vietnam War.

My husband has served his country for 10 years and counting. He has a masters degree, he is not addicted to any drugs and his parents have been happily married for almost 30 years. He was and still continues to be trained to the highest military standards, he has never committed a crime and when its required he can fight fight and believe me, he certainly doesn't do it for the money. Yeah there were great soldiers in WWII, my grandfather was one of them. But I'm sure there were just as many bad soldiers back then as there are now. Our technology wasn't nearly as good back then so we don't know half the stuff that went on. It was a lot easier for the Army to keep it under wraps without hundreds of journalists swarming Europe like they are swarming Iraq. My grandmother (who was a nurse during WWll) has told me one story of a man who was stationed in England. He befriended and English family and eventually killed them. So not all WWll soldiers were that great. OK I'm sorry I called you lazy. Post the whole story when you are raving. Or at least mention that you are a soldier yourself. I still don't agree with you completely, but I'm not a soldier myself. I have met some of the privates who have come into my husbands unit recently, they don't seem to be bad people. But we'll just have to wait and see, they are going to Iraq next year so only time will tell. Thank you for your service.

Things got a little better after the civil war.

In a little over 230 years, America has become arguably the greatest nation on earth.

I'd have to surmise that this isn't due to a country that has been declining since its inception.

I don't think the USA really started to decline until FDR.

I think it reached its peak in WWII and has been slowly declining since then.

Yes. America's motivation for it all is money and power