Umair Haque — Is America a Failing State?

Currencies imploding, markets fluctuating, politicians dithering, economies stagnating, societies fracturing, unrest spreading. Welcome to the winter of our discontent — again.
Is America failing? And are the other advanced economies following in its staggering footsteps (UK, I’m looking at you)?

Consider my very crude, edited, back-of-the-envelope take on a few of the criteria outlined in the Failed States index, one by one. Uneven, stratified, exclusionary economic development, accompanied by economic flatlining? Sounds familiar. Mounting demographic pressures, including slum creation? Just tour Baltimore. Widespread corruption and kleptocracy? Yep — for just one example, see then-Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson tipping off his hedge fund buddies about Fannie and Freddie. Delegitimization of the state? What else does a Congressional approval rating in single digits suggest to you? Progressive deterioration of public services? Just look at JFK airport. Widespread violation of human rights? Finally, here’s one I can’t automatically check off the list–but still, one of the year’s most viral photos was Officer Pike calmly pepper-spraying college kids in the face. Reverse brain drain? Not yet — but not hard to imagine, if we keep harassing bright students.

Here’s what I’m not suggesting: that America is Afghanistan; that the incredible suffering of the globe’s most vulnerable is equivalent to what Twitter snarkily calls #firstworldproblems, nor that life in an advanced economy that’s declining is as heart-rendingly awful as in an a nation that failed to advance at all. But I am suggesting that the rumors of our imminent decline are worth examining, and that we might start by looking at the failure of our institutions to deliver the goods.

Harvard Business review — HBR Blog Network
Is America a Failing State?

Umair Haque

"Reverse brain drain? Not yet..." Actually, it's beginning already. Emigration of US citizens to Latin America is now greater than immigration from Latin America to the US, and researchers are also looking for better research opportunities with the US cutting funding for R&D. I have been saying for some time that younger people in search of opportunity should look elsewhere than the developed world. Growth is happening in the emerging world and the developed world is stagnating.

"Widespread violation of human rights? Finally, here’s one I can’t automatically check off the list..." Huh?