编辑“美国”

{{Infobox country|name=美利坚合众国|image_flag=Flag of the United States.svg|population_estimate_year=2020年|population_estimate=331,449,281 三亿三千一百四十四万九千二百八十一|area_km2=9,833,520 九百八十三万三千五百二十|established_date1=1776年7月4日|established_event1=独立宣言|official_languages=英语|image_map_size=220px|image_map=USA orthographic.svg|leader_name3=卡马拉哈里斯|native_name=United States of America<br>ᏌᏊᎢᏳᎾᎵᏍᏔᏅᏍᎦᏚᎩ ᎾᎿ ᎠᎺᏰᏟ<br>ʻAmelika Huipūʻia<br>Tannapta Nunaŋat<br>Mílahaŋska Tȟamákȟočhe<br>Wááshindoon Bikéyah Ałhidadiidzooígíí<br>Gichi-mookomaan-aki|leader_title3=参议院议长|leader_name2=南希·佩洛西|leader_title2=众议院议长|leader_name1=乔·拜登|leader_title1=总统|largest_city=纽约|image_coat=Coat of Arms of the USA.webp|capital=华盛顿|government_type=联邦制共和国|currency=美元|mode_of_production=资本主义|event_pre=[[美国革命|革命]]开端|date_pre=1775年4月19日|established_event2=现行宪法发布|established_date2=1789年3月4日|established_event3=夏威夷州成为第五十个州|established_date3=1959年8月21日}}'''美利坚合众国'''，简称美国，是全世界影响力最大的[[帝国主义]]、[[资本主义]]国家, 其国民生产总值超过了全球的15%，<ref>{{News citation|date=2021|title=United States' share of global gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP)|url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/270267/united-states-share-of-global-gross-domestic-product-gdp/|newspaper=Statista|retrieved=2022-01-25}}</ref> 同时也是全世界军费开支最高的国家，其军费开展占全球军费开支的40%以上。<ref>{{Citation|author=Stockholm International Peace Research Institute|year=2021|title=Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2020|pdf=https://sipri.org/sites/default/files/2021-04/fs_2104_milex_0.pdf}}</ref> 其人口超过3.3亿，是世界上人口第三多的国家。<ref>{{News citation|date=2020|title=Population, total - United States|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=US|newspaper=World Bank|retrieved=2022-01-25}}</ref>

作为现代[[帝国]]，美国实质上是帝国主义阴谋集团的核心，是例如[[北大西洋公约组织]]、[[美洲国家组织]]、[[世界银行]]、[[国际货币基金组织]]、[[国家民主基金会]]、[[人权观察]]等国际帝国主义组织的主要国家。

普遍的[[反共思想]]，政府官员与企业董事会之间的密切联系，好战倾向，以及[[民族主义]]，父权制和种族沙文主义思想的影响力美国成为具有[[法西斯主义]]特征的[[资产阶级]]专政国家。<ref>Black Panther Party (1970) [https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/1970/dope.htm Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide]</ref><ref>Fred Hampton (1969) [https://www.marxists.org/archive/hampton/1969/11/class-struggle-godamnit.htm It’s a Class Struggle, Godamnit!]</ref><ref>Minju Joson (2016) [https://web.archive.org/web/20210528023946/https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/255411/minju-joson-on-final-doom-of-u-s/ Final Doom of U.S.]</ref>

美国最初是欧洲海洋帝国殖民地，于1776年独立。它通过帝国主义方式取得了显著的经济、科学和军事发展，利用军事力量确保其私营企业能够剥削世界各国。美国在帝国主义战争中蓄意杀害了超过一千一百万手无寸铁的平民。<ref name=":6">{{Citation|author=Austin Murphy|year=2000|title=The Triumph of Evil|chapter=Introduction|section=|page=22–24, 34|pdf=https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf|publisher=European Press Academic Publishing|isbn=8883980026}}</ref>

其对外的许多剥削方法也用于剥削本国人口，随着自2008年金融危机以来的经济下行，其剥削强度越来越高。
==历史==
===欧洲殖民前===
{{Main article|人类史}} [[美洲]]的人类定居始于12，500至27，000年前，研究人员提出了各种不同的可能路线。最常见和被广泛接受的理论是，人类在30，000年前穿越西伯利亚和阿拉斯加之间的白令海峡<ref>{{Citation|author=David J. Meltzer|year=2009|title=First peoples in a New World: colonizing Ice Age America|page=329|quote=The port of entry for America’s ﬁrst peoples was the Bering Sea region. They could, and likely did, walk across from Siberia to Alaska when expanding continental ice sheets dropped sea levels worldwide and Beringia surfaced. Crossing its Mammoth Steppe, blanketed by parkland and grazed by mammoth, horse, and bison, was possible anytime between 27,000 and 10,000 years ago. The recent genetic evidence of a possible Beringian standstill suggests the ﬁrst peoples may have been relatively isolated in this region for much of that time.|publisher=University of California Press}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Erika Tamm, et al|year=2007|title=Beringian Standstill and spread of Native American founders|title-url=https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829#pone.0000829-Pitulko1|quote=The new data suggest that the initial founders of the Americas emerged from a single source ancestral population that evolved in isolation, likely in Beringia. This scenario is consistent with the unique pattern of diversity from autosomal locus D9S1120 of a private allele in high frequency and ubiquitous in the Americas. The finding that humans were present at the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site dated to 30,000 ybp suggests that the isolation in Beringia might have lasted up to 15,000 years. Following this isolation, the initial founders of the Americas began rapidly populating the New World from North to South America.|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829}}</ref> 彼时海平面处于最低水平，大陆桥一直保持到至少125，000年前人类穿越白令海峡定居美洲。<ref>{{Citation|author=David J. Meltzer|year=2009|title=First peoples in a New World: colonizing Ice Age America|page=329|quote=In any case, it appears from the evidence at Monte Verde that the ﬁrst Americans were here by at least 12,500 BP and possibly earlier still. Certainly by 11,500 BP, Clovis Paleoindians were widespread, possibly representing a second migratory pulse to the New World, one that may have spread across the continent in less than a thousand years.|publisher=University of California Press}}</ref> 

基于线粒体DNA的遗传证据表明，中亚和北美原住民之间的共同祖先估计在25，000至20，000年前分化，<ref>{{Citation|author=Goebel, Waters & O’Rourke|year=2008|title=The Late Pleistocene dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas|quote=Establishing when central Asian and Native American haplogroup lineages last shared a common ancestor has proven to be difficult. Current coalescent estimates based on variation in extant mtDNA lineages set the event at 25 to 20 ka or less than 20 ka, after the last glacial maximum (LGM), and estimates based on Y- chromosome variability suggest that divergence occurred after 22.5 ka, possibly as late as 20 to 15 ka.|doi=10.1126/science.1153569}}</ref> 亚单倍群分析表明白令海峡地区的人类分化在160，000年前分化<ref>{{Citation|author=Goebel, Waters & O’Rourke|year=2008|title=The Late Pleistocene dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas.|doi=10.1126/science.1153569|quote=New analyses of haplogroup subclades help to resolve when modern humans subsequently spread from Beringia to the rest of the Americas. Three subclades of mtDNA subhaplogroup C1 are widely distributed among North, Central, and South Americans but absent in Asian populations, which suggests that they evolved after the central Asian–Native American split, as the first Americans were dispersing from Beringia. The estimated date of coalescence for these subclades is 16.6 to 11.2 ka, which suggests that the colonization of the Americas south of the continental ice sheets may have occurred some time during the late-glacial period, thousands of years after the initial splitting of Asian and Native American lineages.|page=}}</ref>

大约10，500年前，北美东部地区的人民发展了以玉米种植，驯养动物，狩猎，捕鱼和采集为基础的农业，<ref>{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An indigenous peoples' history of the United States|page=15-16|quote=Domestication of plants took place around the globe in seven locales during approximately the same period, around 8500 BC. Three of the seven were in the Americas, all based on corn: the Valley of Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica); the South-Central Andes in South America; and eastern North America. [...] During this time, many of the same human societies began domesticating animals. Only in the American continents was the parallel domestication of animals eschewed in favor of game management, a kind of animal husbandry different from that developed in Africa and Asia. In these seven areas, agriculture based "civilized" societies developed in symbiosis with hunting, fishing, and gathering peoples on their peripheries, gradually enveloping many of the latter into the realms of their civilizations, except for those in regions inhospitable to agriculture.|isbn=978-0-8070-0040-3|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=D80C34C2EDEF56A1CA68F01727416207}}</ref> 其农业所需的复杂的灌溉系统随着中、南美洲的贸易得到发展<ref>{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An indigenous peoples' history of the United States|page=16|isbn=978-0-8070-0040-3|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=D80C34C2EDEF56A1CA68F01727416207|quote=Corn, being a summer crop, can tolerate no more than twenty to thirty days without water and even less time in high temperatures. Many of the areas where corn was the staple were arid or semiarid, so its cultivation required the design and construction of complex irrigation systems-in place at least two thousand years be fore Europeans knew the Americas existed. The proliferation of agriculture and cultigens could not have occurred without centuries of cultural and commercial interchange among the peoples of North, Central, and South America, whose traders carried seeds as well as other goods and cultural practices.}}</ref> 到十五世纪，美洲的人口达到一亿，其中北美拥有四千万人口。同一时期[[欧洲]]人口约为五千万。<ref>{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An indigenous peoples' history of the United States|page=17|isbn=978-0-8070-0040-3|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=D80C34C2EDEF56A1CA68F01727416207|quote=The total population of the hemisphere was about one hundred million at the end of the fifteenth century, with about two-fifths in North America, including Mexico. Central Mexico alone supported some thirty million people. At the same time, the population of Europe as far east as the Ural Mountains was around fifty million.}}</ref>

在欧洲殖民之初，大多数土著人民生活在农业社会，但也有是狩猎者和采集者。<ref name=":2">{{News citation|author=Dennis Etler|newspaper=[[CGTN]]|title=U.S. treatment of Native Americans is a gross human rights violation|date=2021-03-29|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-26/U-S-treatment-of-Native-Americans-is-a-gross-human-rights-violation-YVtGCFbCJa/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219235353/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-26/U-S-treatment-of-Native-Americans-is-a-gross-human-rights-violation-YVtGCFbCJa/index.html|archive-date=2022-02-19|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref>
===殖民时期===
17世纪，来自英国和荷兰的殖民者抵达北美。在1654年至1685年间从布里斯托尔出发的10，000名殖民者中，大多数是农民和工匠，不到15%是无产者。殖民者开始奴役非洲奴隶和美洲原住民。<ref name=":3">{{Citation|author=J. Sakai|year=1983|title=Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat|title-url=https://readsettlers.org/text-index.html|chapter=The Heart of Whiteness|chapter-url=https://readsettlers.org/ch1.html|section=|isbn=9781629630762}}</ref> 1675年，又称“菲利普国王”的[[梅塔科米特]]发动了一场反对殖民者的起义。<ref name=":4">{{Citation|author=J. Sakai|year=1983|title=Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat|title-url=https://readsettlers.org/text-index.html|chapter=Struggles & Alliances|chapter-url=https://readsettlers.org/ch2.html|isbn=9781629630762}}</ref>

1715年，殖民者将本土奴隶贩卖到国外，并引入非洲黑奴。到独立战争时，非裔人口占非土著人口的20%以上，在弗吉尼亚州和南卡罗来纳州占一半以上。<ref name=":3" />
====Bacon's Rebellion====
Soon after King Philip's War, a conflict broke out in Virginia between settlers and the Susquehannock. A settler army of 1,100 surrounded the Susquehannock fort and executed five of their leaders, inspiring them to begin a guerrilla warfare campaign. In May 1676, plantation owner [[Nathaniel Bacon]] formed a vigilante group to attack the Susquehannock, against the orders of the British colonial governor. He went to an Occaneechee fort and persuaded the Occaneechee to attack the Susquehannock. After the Susquehannock were defeated, Bacon attacked the Occaneechee to steal their beaver furs, which were worth about £1,000.

After defeating the Occaneechee, Bacon turned against Governor [[Norborne Berkeley]], whom he accused of secretly selling guns to the indigenous peoples. On June 23, 1676, he marched to Jamestown with an army of over 500 and captured the city. Loyalist forces arrived in September but Bacon soon recaptured the city and burned it down.<ref name=":4" />
====Seven Years' War====
During the [[Seven Years' War]], the British fought against [[Kingdom of France (987–1792)|France]] and their indigenous allies. The indigenous peoples supported the French because they traded with them but did not want to occupy their land. The British defeated the French in 1763 and France ceded the land west of the Appalachians to Britain. The natives continued a guerrilla warfare campaign against the British until they passed the Proclamation of 1763, which prevented colonists from settling west of the Appalachians.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=[[Howard Zinn]]|year=1980|title=A People's History of the United States|title-url=https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/|chapter=A Kind of Revolution|page=89–90|pdf=https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20Unite%20-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=0060194480}}</ref>
===Revolution===
{{Main article|Statesian Revolution}}During the Statesian Revolution, the British tried to form an alliance with the [[Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)|Cherokee Nation]] and provided them with weapons and funding. In 1776, over 5,000 settlers from Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas invaded the Cherokee Nation. Settlers attacked the Cherokee Nation again in 1780 and 1781.

In 1777, the British formed an alliance with the Shawnee in what is now Ohio. In 1780, settlers from Virginia attacked the Shawnee in what is now southern Ohio.

In the north, the six nations of the Haudenosaunee took different sides in the war. The Mohawk and Senecas sided with the British, the Oneidas sided with the settlers, and the Cayuga, Onondaga, and Tuscarora were neutral. [[George Washington]] gave orders to destroy the villages of the nations that did not side with the United States.<ref>{{Citation|author=Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz|year=2014|title=An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States|chapter=Bloody Footprints|page=72–77|pdf=https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/10601/An%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20History%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Ortiz.pdf|city=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press Books|series=ReVisioning American History}}</ref>
===Expansion===
With the advent of the war of 1776 against the [[Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801)|British Empire]] and afterwards, the fledgling United States expanded westward with Thomas Jefferson (the third in a long line of Presidents) referring to the nation as an "empire of liberty." As Nancy Isenberg elucidates in her book ''White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America'': "The Louisiana Territory, as he envisioned it, would encourage agriculture and forestall the growth of manufacturing and urban poverty—that was his formula for liberty. It was not Franklin’s “happy mediocrity” (a compression of classes across an endless stretch of unsettled land), but a nation of farmers large and small. This difference is not nominal: Franklin and Paine used Pennsylvania as their model, while Jefferson saw America’s future—and the contours of its class system—through the prism of Virginia."<ref>{{Citation|author=Nancy Isenberg|year=2016|title=White trash: the 400-year untold history of class in America|publisher=Viking|isbn=9780670785971|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=858AE1D454C3854355613E1824C318ED|page=92}}</ref>

Around 1800, as the lands further to the west were opened up to the fledgling United States, the young state saw the land as a way to appease its population and strengthen its power in the world. As Nancy Isenberg further explains: "By 1800, one-fifth of the American population had resettled on its 'frontier,' the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi. Effective regulation of this mass migration was well beyond the limited powers of the federal government. Even so, officials understood that the country’s future depended on controlling this vast territory. Financial matters were involved too. Government sale of these lands was needed to reduce the nation’s war debts. Besides, the lands were hardly empty, and the potential for violent conflicts with Native Americans was ever present, as white migrants settled on lands they did not own. National greatness depended as much as anything upon the class of settlers that was advancing into the new territories. Would the West be a dumping ground for a refuse population? Or would the United States profit from its natural bounty and grow as a continental empire more equitably? There was much uncertainty."<ref>{{Citation|author=Nancy Isenberg|year=2016|title=White trash: the 400-year untold history of class in America|publisher=Viking|isbn=9780670785971|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=858AE1D454C3854355613E1824C318ED|page=110}}</ref>

After the Statesian Revolution, the United States began a genocidal policy of "Indian Removal" to clear the land between the Mississippi River and the Appalachians for settlers. In 1790, most of the settler population lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. From 1800 to 1830, the number of white settlers west of the Appalachians grew from 700,000 to 4.5 million. Between 1820 and 1844, the number of Native Americans living east of the Mississippi dropped from 120,000 to under 30,000. President [[Thomas Jefferson]] bought the Louisiana Territory from [[French Republic (1792–1804)|France]] in 1803, doubling the size of the United States and extending the frontier to the Rocky Mountains.<ref name=":5">{{Citation|author=Howard Zinn|year=1980|title=A People's History of the United States|title-url=https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/|chapter=As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs|page=124–129|pdf=https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20Unite%20-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf}}</ref>

Through a series of treaties from 1814 to 1824, settlers took control of most of [[Alabama]] and [[Florida]] as well as parts of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Kentucky]], [[Mississippi]], [[North Carolina]], and [[Tennessee]]. Future president [[Andrew Jackson]] relied on bribery and threats to make native leaders sign these treaties. In 1818, he began raids into [[Governorate of Florida (1783–1821)|Spanish Florida]] and destroyed Seminole villages until [[Kingdom of Spain (1813–1873)|Spain]] surrendered the territory to the United States in 1819.<ref name=":5" />

Presidents Andrew Jackson and [[Martin Van Buren]] forced 70,000 Native Americans to move west across the Mississippi River. Secretary of War [[Lewis Cass]] promised in 1825 that the United States would never try to take indigenous land west of the Mississippi.<ref name=":5" />

By the late 19th century, the native population had been decimated and the survivors were forced into concentration camps. Native children were forced into boarding schools and prevented from speaking their native languages.<ref name=":2" /> Several hundred children died in these schools.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=CGTN|title=U.S. govt finds burial sites at 53 Native American boarding schools|date=2022-05-13|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-13/U-S-govt-finds-burial-sites-at-53-Native-American-boarding-schools-19ZRXTgFIC4/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513073029/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-13/U-S-govt-finds-burial-sites-at-53-Native-American-boarding-schools-19ZRXTgFIC4/index.html|archive-date=2022-05-13|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref> By 1900, only 190,000 Native Americans in the United States remained alive compared to five million at the beginning of colonization.<ref name=":2" />
===Austronesian genocide===
By the end of the 19th century, the United States would find itself as a predominant imperialist power in the world, invading countries such as the [[Philippines]] in a brutal war for control. In J. Sakai's book ''Settlers'', it's recounted that: "U.S. Brig. Gen. James Bell, upon returning to the U.S. in 1901, said that his men had killed one out of every six Filipinos on the main island of Luzon (that would be some one million deaths just there). It is certain that at least 200,000 Filipinos died in the genocidal conquest. In Samar province, where the patriotic resistance to the U.S. invaders was extremely persistent, U.S. Gen. Jacob Smith ordered his troops to shoot every Filipino man, woman or child they could find 'over ten' (years of age)."<ref>Sakai 2014, p. 111</ref>

The United States would expand beyond its continental borders with the colonialist acquisition of lands such as Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, etc. With the attack on several of these territories by the [[Japanese empire]], most notably at Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt would downplay the colonialist additions to the American empire, such as the Philippines, and give more emphasis to the U.S. territory of Hawaii (which was not yet a state during this time). From Daniel Immerwahr's ''How To Hide An Empire: A History of the Greater United States'':<blockquote>"Why did Roosevelt demote the Philippines? We don't know, but it's not hard to guess. Roosevelt was trying to tell a clear story: Japan had attacked the United States. But he faced a problem. ''Were'' Japan's targets considered 'the United States'? Legally, yes, they were indisputably U.S. territory. But would the public see them that way? What if Roosevelt's audience didn't care that Japan had attacked the Philippines or Guam? Polls taken slightly before the attack show that few in the continental United States supported a military defense of those remote territories. Consider how similar events played out more recently. On August 7, 1998, al-Qaeda launched simultaneous attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi, [[Republic of Kenya|Kenya]], and Dar es Salaam, [[United Republic of Tanzania|Tanzania]]. Hundreds died (mostly Africans), and thousands were wounded. But though those embassies were outposts of the United States, there was little public sense that the country ''itself'' had been harmed. It would take another set of simultaneous attacks three years later, on New York City and Washington, D.C., to provoke an all-out war."<ref>{{Citation|author=Daniel Immerwahr|year=2019|title=How to hide an empire: a history of the greater United States|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=9780374172145|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9D70A450044495E0D851721E77D5C8A1|page=6}}</ref></blockquote>While an embassy is different from a territory, as the book concedes, a similar logic was at play. And as Immerwahr says, Hawaii had more Americans and was closer to statehood. However, as Immerwahr explains, even Roosevelt felt the need to say that the "American island of Oahu" was attacked and that "very many American lives" had been lost. As Immerwahr says in explaining the nationalism implicit in Roosevelt's speech after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor: "An ''American'' island, where ''American'' lives were lost - that was the point he was trying to make. If the Philippines was being rounded down to foreign, Hawai'i was being rounded up to 'American.'"<ref>{{Citation|author=Daniel Immerwahr|year=2019|title=How to hide an empire: a history of the greater United States|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=9780374172145|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9D70A450044495E0D851721E77D5C8A1|page=7}}</ref>
===21st century===
====Internal crises====
The US is embroiled in crisis as its middle class (the petit bourgeoisie) is increasingly impoverished.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-state-of-americas-middle-class-in-eight-charts/ The State of America’s Middle Class in Eight Charts] PBS Frontline by Jason M. Breslow and Evan Wexler on July 9th, 2013</ref><ref>[https://americansystemnow.com/deindustrialization-is-killing-america/ Deindustrialization is Killing America]</ref> This is due to the capitalist class deciding to offshore well-paying industrial jobs to lower-income countries,<ref>[https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/08/a-new-assessment-of-the-role-of-offshoring-in-the-decline-in-us-manufacturing-employment.html A New Assessment of the Role of Offshoring in the Decline in US Manufacturing Employment] on Naked Capitalism by Yves Smith on Aug 16, 2019</ref> as well expansionary monetary policy<ref>[https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1220364.shtml US’ excessive money-printing prompts de-dollarization] on [[Global Times]] by Ma Jingjing published on April 6th, 2021</ref> which enriches the bourgeoisie through asset price inflation,<ref>[https://fee.org/articles/the-cantillon-effect-because-of-inflation-we-re-financing-the-financiers/ The Cantillon Effect: Because of Inflation, We’re Financing the Financiers] on Fee.org by Jessica Schultz on Oct 28, 2018</ref> and deepens the crisis among the poor by weakening their purchasing power.

As a result of this ongoing crisis of capitalism, populist movements have risen to challenge the rule of "the elites." Occupy Wall Street was a popular movement against the financial elites in 2011. During the 2016 presidential election, the corporate-owned media attacked both the left-wing populist Bernie Sanders, as well as the right-wing populist Donald Trump. The Democratic Party's strategy to "elevate Trump" to make the Republican ticket look unsavory ended up backfiring and resulting in Trump's victory.

With the economic hardships of the 2020's, a growing number of Americans, often of younger ages, have begun to lose faith in capitalism.<ref>{{News citation|author=Laura Wronski|newspaper=SurveyMoney|title=Axios{{!}}Momentive Poll: Capitalism and Socialism|date=2021-6-11|url=https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/axios-capitalism-update/|retrieved=2022-6-11}}</ref> While many of these discontent people have achieved [[consciousness]] in how many problems (constant wars, homelessness, global warming, etc.) in society can ultimately be traced back to capitalism, and have therefore aligned themselves with [[Marxism|Marxist]] or otherwise [[socialist]] ideologies, there are many other malcontent people who have taken to the far-right. A trend that is present especially among the middle-class, there has been an increase in the popularity of populist and xenophobic groups, as well as an increasing [[Fascism|fascistization]] of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] (one of the two ruling parties in the American government).<ref>{{Citation|author=Marc-André Argentino, Blyth Crawford, Florence Keen, Hannah Rose|year=2021|title=Far-From-Gone:The Evolutionof Extremism in the First 100 Daysof the Biden Administration|title-url=https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ICSR-Report-Far-From-Gone-The-Evolution-of-Extremism-in-the-First-100-Days-of-the-Biden-Administration.pdf|chapter=3.  The 6 January Insurrectionists: Narratives and Motivations|section=Discontent with Presidential Election Results|page=63-72|pdf=https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ICSR-Report-Far-From-Gone-The-Evolution-of-Extremism-in-the-First-100-Days-of-the-Biden-Administration.pdf|city=London|publisher=International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation|trans-lang=English}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|author=Alison Durkee|newspaper=Forbes|title=More Than Half Of Republicans Believe Voter Fraud Claims And Most Still Support Trump, Poll Finds|date=2021-4-5|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/04/05/more-than-half-of-republicans-believe-voter-fraud-claims-and-most-still-support-trump-poll-finds/?sh=7edebb081b3f|retrieved=2022-6-10}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Dr. Robert A. Pape|year=2021|title=UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN DOMESTIC TERRORISM|title-url=https://d3qi0qp55mx5f5.cloudfront.net/cpost/i/docs/americas_insurrectionists_online_2021_04_06.pdf?mtime=1617807009|chapter=STUDY 1:WHO ARE THE INSURRECTIONISTS AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM|section=MANY BUSINESS OWNERS/WHITECOLLAR|page=6-9|pdf=https://d3qi0qp55mx5f5.cloudfront.net/cpost/i/docs/americas_insurrectionists_online_2021_04_06.pdf?mtime=1617807009|city=The University of Chicago|publisher=Chicago Project on Security and Threats|trans-lang=English}}</ref>
====External losses====
The American empire has been on the decline since the 21st century and possibly earlier. This is a slow process that will take years to complete however. One major factor of this decline is the United States' incapacity to respond to the [[People's Republic of China]]'s [[Belt and Road Initiative]], as more countries are moving towards the PRC and away from the USA for trade and loans.

If a superpower is measured through objective metrics such as scientific output (number of research papers per year)<ref>https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20206/</ref>, exports & other trade metrics<ref>https://www.statista.com/statistics/264623/leading-export-countries-worldwide/<nowiki/>archive: https://archive.ph/dKloW</ref>, GDP<ref>https://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=10&v=65 - GDP adapted to purchasing power parity (PPP)</ref>, then these metrics show the US is on the decline and has been for several years. In subjective metrics, a superpower's hegemony is measured in its soft power (putting compradors in power abroad to ensure collaboration), its cultural exports (media, entertainment, software), and generally its respect in the world. In these trends too we see the USA declining. They have been unable for some time to ensure compradors in other countries, and are becoming less respected in the eyes of the international community (see list below). The United States' cultural export is still high, but even at home people are increasingly moving away from domestic entertainment, though it remains to be seen if this will be a lasting trend.

Other losses that the American empire has had to endure in the 21st century include, in chronological order:
*The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which completely blindsided intelligence and security agencies, showed a very big weakness in the imperial apparatus: it was not as invincible as it thought.
*A smear campaign originated in the US media in January 2019 when [[Venezuela|Venezuelan]] president [[Nicolás Maduro]] was reelected. US News organisations started reporting about a supposed humanitarian crisis in the country, owing to Maduro's allegedly "disastrous" policies. Two weeks later, president of the Assembly Juan Guaido proclaimed himself president of Venezuela as he contested Maduro's results -- under the guise that he was not allowed to run for office a third time as per the constitution. Juan Guaido, who enjoyed very little support at home and was a nobody, was nonetheless instantly recognized as the legitimate president of Venezuela by the United States and other countries and organisations (Canada, European Union...). An attempted color revolution then was planned in Venezuela, but went nowhere. Guaido was then slowly phased out of the public eye in the international community, though he continues to make noise in Venezuela. Maduro remains the president of Venezuela.
*In late 2019, [[Plurinational State of Bolivia|Bolivian]] president [[Evo Morales]] was reelected at his position. The election results were immediately contested by the [[Organization of American States|Organisation of American States]], a US-led organisation for the purpose of securing imperialism on the American continent. While these allegations proved to be false, Morales went in exile for over six months while [[Jeanine Añez]], a far-right comprador politician, was placed as an interim. After delaying new elections twice, Añez finally relented and took a huge blow when [[Luis Arce]], from the same party as Morales was elected. Añez is now in prison awaiting trial on various charges including terrorism, sedition, and leading a coup against the government.
*In January 2020, the United States ordered the assassination of [[Islamic Republic of Iran|Iranian]] general [[Qasem Soleimani]] while on visit in Baghdad, [[Iraq]]. Later that month, Iran retaliated by launching an attack on a US military base in Iraq on a scale never seen before. The US however did not retaliate against this attack in any way.
*In August 2021, the United States, after 20 years of occupation in [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] to prevent the Taliban from controlling the state, did exactly the opposite and let the Taliban seize the Afghan state.
It is important to compare this list to earlier imperialist ventures of the United States who, for example, considered South America their "backyard" for most of the 20th century and successfully pulled-off coups and regime changes unimpeded in the region. While the Empire also took losses in the 20th century (the invasion of Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs invasion...), it must only contextualised by looking at the general trends and how these losses are rapidly adding up.
==Indigenous genocide==
Over 90% of the indigenous population of North America was killed due to colonization, and some have estimated that no more than 2% of the pre-Columbian population survived and settlers killed over 18 million indigenous people. From 1641 to the late 18th century, legislation existed that rewarded settlers for killing indigenous peoples, with extra rewards for the scalps of boys.<ref name=":6" />

Many Native Americans are restricted to reservations in remote areas and live in poverty.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=[[CGTN]]|title=Native Americans: The invisible minority in the U.S.|date=2021-05-19|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-19/Native-Americans-The-invisible-minority-in-the-U-S--10l6zrdhLMY/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520001321/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-19/Native-Americans-The-invisible-minority-in-the-U-S--10l6zrdhLMY/index.html|archive-date=2021-05-20|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref> Overall, Native Americans are twice as likely to be in poverty.<ref name=":1">{{News citation|author=Xin Ping|newspaper=[[CGTN]]|title=Surviving in oblivion: Who cast a miserable shadow over the Native Americans?|date=2022-01-06|url=https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-06/Who-cast-a-miserable-shadow-over-the-Native-Americans--16BqNXMyp3i/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107052329/https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-06/Who-cast-a-miserable-shadow-over-the-Native-Americans--16BqNXMyp3i/index.html|archive-date=2022-01-07|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref> They do not have access to the natural resources of the reservations, which are owned by corporations and mining companies. Indigenous peoples have the worst health and educational outcomes and the highest level of suicide<ref name=":0" /> and indigenous women are 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.<ref name=":1" />
==Government==
[[File:US Plutocracy Flag.jpg|alt=U.S. flag restyled to illustrate the plutocratic and corporatist nature of the political system|thumb|U.S. flag restyled to illustrate the plutocratic and corporatist nature of the political system; the 50 stars which represent each state have been replaced with the logos of large monopolistic corporations.]]The US political system is a ''de facto'' plutocracy; a government entirely controlled by the wealthy. The richest three Statesians have more money than the poorest 160 million combined.<ref>{{News citation|author=Tom Kertscher|newspaper=PolitiFact|title='The wealthiest three families now own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.'|date=2019-07-03|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/03/bernie-sanders/bernie-sanders-target-saying-3-richest-have-much-w/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220126234218/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/03/bernie-sanders/bernie-sanders-target-saying-3-richest-have-much-w/|archive-date=2022-01-26|retrieved=2022-05-01}}</ref> Public support for the U.S. government is very low, with only 2% of Statesians believing the government almost always does what is right and only 19% believing it mostly does the right thing. 7% of Statesians have confidence in Congress, 23% have confidence in the presidency, and 25% have confidence in the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=[[Ben Norton]]|newspaper=[[Multipolarista]]|title=Polls show almost no one trusts US media, after decades of war propaganda and lies|date=2022-07-30|url=https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/30/trust-us-media-war-propaganda/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806143950/https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/30/trust-us-media-war-propaganda/|archive-date=2022-08-06|retrieved=2022-08-07}}</ref>

The US is a ''de facto'' [[one-party state]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Mark J. Green|year=1982|title=Winning Back America|title-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oa3VExRT2s8C&q=%22Yes,+we+have+one+party+here.+But+so+does+America.+Except,+with+typical+extravagance,+they+have+two+of+them.%22&dq=%22Yes,+we+have+one+party+here.+But+so+does+America.+Except,+with+typical+extravagance,+they+have+two+of+them.%22&hl=es-419&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiI5N6FrafqAhXoHbkGHehvD1UQ6AEwAXoECAAQAg|quote='Yes, we have one party here. But so does America. Except, with typical extravagance, they have two of them!'|publisher=Bantam Books|isbn=9780553226300}}</ref> with aesthetical differences between its two main parties, the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], but both parties follow common policies, especially abroad. The ruling capitalist oligarchy has two factions: the Democratic Party which is center-right<ref>[http://www.thebreezepaper.com/news-blog/2020/12/18/like-it-or-not-the-democratic-party-is-a-right-wing-party Like it or Not, the Democratic Party is a Right-Wing Party]</ref> and is controlled by the monopolistic managerial [[bourgeoisie]] who seeks to maintain the stability of the imperialist system by being less reactionary on inconsequential social issues, and the Republican Party, which is more reactionary and backwards when it comes to social issues<ref>[https://www.salon.com/2019/07/05/how-did-the-republican-party-become-so-conservative/ How did the Republican Party become so conservative?]</ref> and tends to pander to the [[Petty bourgeoisie|petit bourgeoisie]] in their effort to deepen the exploitation of labor.

The election system further solidifies this duopoly with its "First Past the Post" system, resulting in citizens having to choose "the lesser of two evils." The two political parties stir up public debate around their small disagreements to create a facade of democracy, but bipartisan agreement reigns on questions of foreign policy (imperialism, war, attacking socialist countries) as well as domestic policies such as prioritizing funding for police repression over social programs such as free housing, higher education, healthcare, etc.

Given the presence of campaign donations and lobbying (legalized corruption), the billionaires who buy off politicians to serve their will are sometimes referred to as the "Donor class".<ref name="NYT-19980719">{{Web citation|journalist=Bob Herbert|date=1998-07-19|title=The Donor Class|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/19/opinion/in-america-the-donor-class.html|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

In his autobiographical account of taking on monopolistic corporations as president, President Theodore Roosevelt recounted:<blockquote>…we had come to the stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Roosevelt, Theodore. 1913. An Autobiography: XII. The Big Stick and the Square Deal|url=http://www.bartleby.com/55/12.html}}</ref></blockquote>Despite various anti-monopoly countermeasures (anti-trust legislation, etc.) the underlying system of capitalism and the desire to accumulate more surplus value and increase profitability continues to result in monopolistic formations within the US economy. These monopolies are more powerful than the public state apparatus, and by most approximations can be considered the same object. According to fascist dictator Mussolini, the merging of corporate power and state power is the definition of fascism.<ref>"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."  --Benito Mussolini. (from Encyclopedia Italiana, Giovanni Gentile, editor)</ref>
==Foreign policy==
The United States has long seen itself as a very special nation, playing a uniquely noble role on the world stage. While other nations are said to be guided by vulgar self-interest, the United States is supposedly different; the primary goal of American foreign policy is, according to the State Department’s website, to “promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.” But how well does the United States live up to those so-called “democratic values”? Does it in fact promote the cause of a “free, peaceful, and prosperous world”? Let’s look at the facts.

The United States has been at war for more than 90% of its existence<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Sabir Shah|date=2020-01-09|title=The US Has Been at war 225 out of 243 years since 1776|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/595752-the-us-has-been-at-war-225-out-of-243-years-since-1776|newspaper=The News|retrieved=2022-03-11}}</ref> and has over 800 military bases in foreign countries, compared to 30 for the rest of the world combined.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=David Vine|title=Where in the World Is the U.S. Military?|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321/|newspaper=Politico|retrieved=2022-03-11}}</ref>
===Foreign Aid and Human Rights===
To begin with, the US has a horrific foreign aid record. It seems that American aid is quite a good predictor of human rights abuses, and that this trend goes back decades; according to a 1981 study in the journal ''Comparative Politics,'' US aid is “clearly distributed disproportionately to countries with repressive governments… this distribution represented a pattern and not merely one or a few isolated cases.” Indeed, it is quite easy to find examples of the United States supporting vicious repressive regimes (such as [[Pinochet]]'s Chile, the Shah of Iran, and the military junta of [[El Salvador]]).

Similarly, a 1984 study in the ''Journal of Peace Research'' looked at human rights and US aid under Nixon, Ford, and Carter. The authors found that “under Presidents Nixon and Ford foreign assistance was directly related to levels of human rights violations, i.e. more aid flowed to regimes with higher levels of violation, while under President Carter no clear statistical pattern emerged.” They therefore conclude that “the Carter administration did not implement a policy of human rights which actually guided the disposition of military and economic assistance.” In other words, the US attitude towards human rights seems to vary from outright hostility (under more conservative administrations) to mere indifference (under more liberal ones).

More recent studies have painted a similarly bleak picture. A 2008 book by Rhonda Callaway and Elizabeth Matthews found that “both United States economic and military aid have detrimental effects on security rights of the citizens in recipient states.” They note that these results “provide support for those critical of the US foreign assistance program.” The most recent research has continued to back up these conclusions. A 2016 study in the ''Quarterly Journal of Political Science'' sampled 150 countries from 1972 to 2008, finding that “US aid harms political rights, fosters other forms of state repression (measured along multiple dimensions), and strengthens authoritarian governance. [...] These findings counter the publicly stated objectives of the US government to foster political liberalization abroad via bilateral economic assistance.”

All-in-all, it seems that aid from the United States has a deleterious impact on the human rights situation in recipient nations. It provides military and economic aid to repressive regimes, arming and propping up some of the most vicious dictators on the planet, all in service of its own interests.

[[Alan MacLeod]] of [[MintPress News]] has compiled a thread of times the US military has deliberately bombed hospitals.<ref>@AlanRMacLeod on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1501981269701373952?s=20&t=4ljxQ0O7WUzqg7tpOHEnHw <nowiki>"A short history of the United States deliberately bombing hospitals [Thread]"</nowiki>] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20220310190033/https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1501981269701373952 (Archived)]''</ref>
===The War on Terror===
Lest we think that the harm of US foreign policy stops at providing aid to dictators, the United States has also carried out a great deal of violence all on its own. To demonstrate the enormous death toll of US military intervention and invasion, let's take a look at the post-9/11 "War on Terror," including the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan (among others).

According to a 2019 report from Brown University's Costs of War project, "between 770,000 and 801,000 people have died" in what the report refers to as "America's post-9/11 wars." This tally does not include so-called "indirect deaths," such as those resulting from displacement and the destruction of crucial infrastructure (e.g. water and sanitation systems). In a 2019 article for the ''Hill,'' David Vine (Professor of Anthropology at American University) writes that "total deaths during the post-2001 U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen [are] likely to reach 3.1 million or more — around 200 times the number of U.S. dead."<ref>The Hill | Reckoning With the Costs of War: It's Time to Take Responsibility</ref> Others have come to similar conclusions. According to a 2018 report from the ''Intercept:''<blockquote>In addition to those killed by direct acts [of] violence, the number of indirect deaths — those resulting from disease, displacement, and the loss of critical infrastructure — is believed to be several times higher, running into the millions.<ref>The Intercept | The Assassination Complex: The Drone Papers</ref></blockquote>These death tolls are backed up by earlier research. A 2009 article from the MIT Center for International Studies, which looked ''only'' at Iraq, found that "we have, at present, between 800,000 and 1.3 million 'excess deaths' in this war as we approach its six-year anniversary." Keep in mind that this is only one of the invaded countries, and that this article was authored in 2009 (more than a decade ago). The current death tolls, when factoring in all nations (as well as the decade of subsequent warfare), are likely many times higher.

The United States government has engaged in a concerted effort to hide the civilian cost of its Middle Eastern wars. According to a 2017 report from the ''New York Times'', the actual rate of civilian causalities inflicted by coalition forces in the Middle East is "more than 31 times that acknowledged by the coalition. It is at such a distance from official claims that, in terms of civilian deaths, this may be the least transparent war in recent American history."

In point of fact, US forces often kill more people than the terrorists they are supposedly there to fight; a 2019 article in the ''New York Times'' reports that "more civilians are being killed by Afghan government and American forces than by the Taliban and other insurgents, according to a [United Nations] report on Wednesday."<ref>The New York Times | U.S. and Afghan Forces Killed More Civilians Than Taliban Did, Report Finds</ref> This is not even mentioning the US drone program, which was detailed in a 2013 report from the ''Intercept.'' To make matters worse, civilian casualties from US wars have been increasing dramatically since Donald Trump took office, according to a 2018 article from the ''Washington Post.''

While it must be noted that the United States did not personally kill all of the millions of people mentioned above, it still bears a heavy burden for these deaths, having initiated the invasions, and started the entire conflict. In the same way that we hold Hitler responsible for the deaths of WWII (since he was the one who started it), so too should we hold the United States responsible for the deaths listed above. For more information on the civilian cost of US intervention, I recommend ''The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars'', a study authored by John Tirman, director of the MIT Center for International Studies.
===Coups and Regime Change===
The United States has a long history of overthrowing governments it doesn't like, typically then replacing them with brutal dictatorships. There are many, ''many'' examples of this, ranging from Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, to Mohammad Mosaddegh in [[Iran]] (a coup for which the CIA actually admitted responsibility in 2013).
====Chile====
In 1973 the United States helped to overthrow the elected socialist government of [[Salvador Allende]] in [[Chile]], replacing it with the right-wing dictatorship of [[Augusto Pinochet]]. Peter Kornbluh, the director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project, said the following of Chile:<blockquote>“To see on a piece of paper, for example, the president of the United States ordering the C.I.A. to preemptively overthrow a democratically elected president in Chile is stunning,” Mr. Kornbluh said. “The importance of having these documents in the museum is for the new generations of Chileans to actually see them.”<ref>The New York Times (2017) [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/world/americas/chile-coup-cia-museum.html Documenting U.S. Role in Democracy’s Fall and Dictator’s Rise in Chile]</ref></blockquote>As if this were not enough, in a 2014 interview with the ''Atlantic,'' Jack Devine (a former CIA agent who was in Chile at the time of the coup) confirmed that the Nixon administration was directly instructing the CIA to support the coup. According to declassified documents, Nixon had previously ordered Henry Kissinger to "make the economy scream," in an effort to rally support for the right-wing forces. The United States also attempted to prevent Allende from being inaugurated after his election, and provided support for state-terrorist campaigns after the coup. Now that the US role has been established, let's look at what Pinochet did once in power.

To begin with, Pinochet killed, tortured, and "disappeared" tens of thousands of people. According to a 2011 article from the BBC, the "total of recognized victims" numbers over 40,000, including more than 3,000 who were killed or forcibly disappeared. The rest were kidnapped, tortured, exiled, or some combination of the above. Pinochet was one of the most vicious dictators in the history of Latin America, and the United States played a direct role in propping up his regime.<ref>BBC | Chile Recognizes 9,800 More Victims of Pinochet's Rule</ref>

In addition, Pinochet introduced hard-line neoliberal reforms, which did immense damage to Chile's economy. A good study on this was published in 1990 in the journal ''Critical Sociology''. The authors note that growth rates under Pinochet were remarkably unimpressive:<blockquote>The Pinochet model produced growth rates well below the Chilean average established over the 1950-72 period. The average yearly GDP rate of growth in the latter period was 3.9 percent, while the Pinochet regime averaged 1.4 percent over the 1974-83 period... overall growth throughout the 1980s has been far from miraculous: GDP per capita grew at a 1.2 percent average rate between 1980 and 1989, below the 1.7 percent average yearly rate for 1950-72.<ref>Critical Sociology | The Chilean "Economic Miracle": An Empirical Critique</ref></blockquote>In addition, the authors charge Pinochet with "creating a great deal of poverty," noting that unemployment "rose dramatically after the coup," while real wages fell. At the same time, social expenditures were reduced, and "infectious diseases readily associated with poverty, overcrowding poor hygiene, and inadequate sanitation underwent explosive growth." This assessment is echoed by a study in the ''International Development Planning Review'', which found that "the radical neoliberal policies and structural adjustment of the 1970s and 1980s during the Pinochet regime had severe negative effects on the poor and middle class."<ref>International Development Planning Review | Land of Miracles? A Critical Analysis of Poverty Reduction Strategies in Chile, 1975-2005</ref> The poverty rate itself increased dramatically; according to a report from the North American Congress on Latin America:<blockquote>The number of poor Chileans doubled during the Pinochet regime. By 1989, 44% of Chileans lived in poverty.<ref>NACLA | In Pursuit of "Growth With Equity": The Limits of Chile's Free-Market Social Reforms</ref></blockquote>In addition, it seems that Pinochet's privatizations also helped to create enormous corruption. According to a study in the ''Journal of Economic History,'' "firms were sold underpriced to politically connected buyers." This had predictable consequences:<blockquote>These newly private firms benefited financially from the Pinochet regime. Once democracy arrived, they formed connections with the new government, financed political campaigns, and were more likely to appear in the [[Panama papers|Panama Papers]]. These findings reveal how dictatorships can influence young democracies using privatization reforms.<ref>Journal of Economic History | The Privatization Origins of Political Corporations: Evidence from the Pinochet Regime</ref></blockquote>
===Sources===
*U.S. Department of State | About Page
*Comparative Politics | U. S. Foreign Policy and Human Rights Violations in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis of Foreign Aid Distributions
*Journal of Peace Research | Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Assistance from Nixon to Carter
*Routledge | Strategic US Foreign Assistance: The Battle Between Human Rights and National Security
*Quarterly Journal of Political Science | Does Foreign Aid Harm Political Rights? Evidence from U.S. Aid
*Brown University | The Cost of the Global War on Terror: $6.4 Trillion and 801,000 Lives
*The Intercept | It's Time for America to Reckon With the Staggering Death Toll of the Post-9/11 Wars
*MIT Center for International Studies | Bush's War Dead: One Million
*The New York Times | The Uncounted
*The Washington Post | Middle East Civilian Deaths Have Soared Under Trump. And the Media Mostly Shrug.
*MIT Center for International Studies | The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars
*CNN | In Declassified Document, CIA Acknowledges Role in '53 Iran Coup
*The Atlantic | The Other 9/11: A CIA Agent Remembers Chile's Coup
*National Security Archive | Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973
*The New Statesman | How Thatcher Gave Pol Pot a Hand
==Domestic policy==
===Poverty===
According to a study from the Brookings Institute:<blockquote>53 million Americans between the ages of 18 to 64—accounting for 44% of all workers—qualify as “low-wage.” Their median hourly wages are $10.22, and median annual earnings are about $18,000.<ref>Brookings Institute | Low-Wage Work is More Prevalent Than You Think, and There Aren't Enough Good Jobs to Go Around</ref></blockquote>Almost ''half'' of the American workforce is officially "low-wage," and that's only if we use an ''extremely'' low standard (below minimum wage, in some states). This is especially horrifying when we remember how many deaths can be directly linked to poverty and deprivation in the United States. According to a study from Columbia University:<blockquote>Overall, 4.5% of U.S. deaths were found to be attributable to poverty... the number of deaths the researchers calculated as attributable to low education (245,000) is comparable to the number caused by heart attacks (192,898), which was the leading cause of U.S. deaths in 2000. The number of deaths attributable to racial segregation (176,000) is comparable to the number from cerebrovascular disease (167,661), the third leading cause of death in 2000, and the number attributable to low social support (162,000) compares to deaths from lung cancer (155,521).<ref>Columbia University | How Many US Deaths Are Caused by Poverty, Lack of Education, and Other Social Factors?</ref></blockquote>Hundreds of thousands of people are dying every year because of poverty, deprivation, and lack of access to social services. Almost half of people 55 or older have no retirement savings.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Gao|title=Retirement Security: Most Households Approaching Retirement Have Low Savings, an Update|date=2019-05-26|url=https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-442r|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414181743/https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-442r|archive-date=2022-04-14|retrieved=2022-07-01}}</ref>
===Healthcare===
The American healthcare system is among the most dysfunctional institutions imaginable, with the highest costs in the world, and some of the worst outcomes of any advanced country.<ref>{{News citation|author=Roosa Tikkanen, Melinda K. Abrams|newspaper=The Commonwealth Fund|title=U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2019: Higher Spending, Worse Outcomes?|date=2020-01-30|url=https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424201656/https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019|archive-date=2022-04-24|retrieved=2022-05-01}}</ref> That being said, there are still those who deny the necessity of completely overhauling the system, and as such, it is useful to take some time and go over the essential facts of the matter. As always, all sources will be listed at the end.

The United States also ranks at the very bottom of the developed world in terms of preventable deaths. Annual deaths could be reduced by 101,000 if the U.S. had a health care system as good as other comparable countries.<ref>Reuters | US Worst in Preventable Death Ranking of Industrialized Countries</ref>
====Health Outcomes====
The USA ranks near the bottom of the developed world in most essential health outcomes. A 2020 paper from the American College of Physicians (published in the ''Annals of Internal Medicine)'' reports that "despite higher spending, the United States generally has less favorable outcomes than other countries." Let's take infant mortality, for example. According to a 2016 study from the American Economic Association:<blockquote>The United States has higher infant mortality than peer countries... The US disadvantage persists after adjusting for potential differential reporting of births near the threshold of viability.</blockquote>The ACP paper confirms that America's poor infant mortality ranking persists "even after adjustment for reporting differences." According to the AEA, this subpar performance "is driven by poor birth outcomes among lower socioeconomic status individuals." As if this wasn't bad enough, maternal mortality is also shockingly high in the USA. According to an article from NPR (reporting on data from the CDC):<blockquote>More American women are dying of pregnancy-related complications than any other developed country. Only in the U.S. has the rate of women who die been rising.<ref>NPR | U.S. Has the Worst Rate of Maternal Deaths in the Developed World</ref></blockquote>To make matters worse, there is evidence that the official statistics actually leave out a great number of deaths, meaning that the actual rate is probably much higher. According to an article from ProPublica, "the new rate, while capturing just how poorly the U.S. ranks among other countries, is actually a significant underestimate of the problem."<ref>ProPublica | The New U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate Fails to Capture Many Deaths</ref> This only makes the issue even more horrifying. In addition, healthcare-amenable mortality is generally higher in the United States than in peer countries. According to the American College of Physicians:<blockquote>The United States has a higher mortality rate for medical conditions for which there are recognized health care interventions than Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, France, and Australia.</blockquote>A 2017 study in the ''Lancet'' looked at global amendable mortality, finding that the United States ranked 35th in the world in overall performance. In a press release following the publication of the paper, Dr. Christopher Murray (the study's lead author) said the following:<blockquote>What we have found about health care access and quality is disturbing. Having a strong economy does not guarantee good health care. Having great medical technology doesn’t either. We know this because people are not getting the care that should be expected for diseases with established treatment. [...] America’s ranking is an embarrassment, especially considering the US spends more than $9,000 per person on health care annually, more than any other country. Anyone with a stake in the current health care debate, including elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels, should take a look at where the US is falling short.<ref>The Lancet | Healthcare Access and Quality Index Based on Mortality from Causes Amenable to Personal Health Care</ref></blockquote>While many people acclaim the US health system for its advanced technology, it is clear that this does no good if people cannot actually access the care they need. All-in-all, it clear that outcomes in the American healthcare system are extremely subpar, especially when one takes into account the ludicrously high cost. On that note, let's discuss cost and expenditures.
====Cost and Expenditures====
The United States spends more per-capita on healthcare than any other country on Earth. According to the aforementioned study from the American College of Physicians:<blockquote>The United States spends far more per capita on health care than other wealthy countries, and spending is increasing at an unsustainable rate. [...] The pricing of health care goods and services is substantially higher in the United States than in other developed nations. A 2003 analysis of OECD data showed that health care utilization in the United States did not exceed that of other countries, and price was the key driver of spending differences.</blockquote>Much of this excessive cost is due to the enormous inefficiency and bureaucracy of the American system. There is a massive amount of administrative spending in the US, which is due primarily to the fragmented multi-payer nature of the healthcare system. According to the ACP:<blockquote>In large part owing to its pluralistic financing system, the United States spends more on administration of health care than peer countries. One study estimated that in 2012, the United States spent $471 billion on billing and insurance-related costs—$375 billion (80%) more than in a “simplified financing system,” such as Canada's single-payer model. Another study concluded that administrative costs were 31% of total U.S. health care expenditures, nearly double those of Canada.</blockquote>These findings are validated by a study in the ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', which said the following:<blockquote>The fragmented financing system is one of the principal explanations for the high cost of medical care in the United States. A careful consolidation of financing into some form of single-payer system is probably the only feasible solution.<ref>Journal of the American Medical Association | Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries</ref></blockquote>Another study from the same journal says the following:<blockquote>The United States spent approximately twice as much as other high-income countries on medical care, yet utilization rates in the United States were largely similar to those in other nations. Prices of labor and goods, including pharmaceuticals, and administrative costs appeared to be the major drivers of the difference in overall cost between the United States and other high-income countries.</blockquote>According to a 2020 study in the ''Lancet'' (conducted at Yale Medical School), a single-payer system would save an enormous amount of money and (more importantly) lives:<blockquote>Taking into account both the costs of coverage expansion and the savings that would be achieved through the Medicare for All Act, we calculate that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than US $450 billion annually (based on the value of the US$ in 2017). [...] Furthermore, we estimate that ensuring health-care access for all Americans would save more than 68 000 lives and 1.73 million life-years every year compared with the status quo.<ref>The Lancet | Improving the Prognosis of Health Care in the USA</ref></blockquote>Claims that a single-payer system would be unaffordable are entirely baseless, and contradicted by the overwhelming mass of evidence. A 2020 meta-analysis in ''PLOS Medicine'' found "a high degree of analytic consensus for the fiscal feasibility of a single-payer approach in the US." As they put it:<blockquote>There is near-consensus in these analyses that single-payer would reduce health expenditures while providing high-quality insurance to all US residents. To achieve net savings, single-payer plans rely on simplified billing and negotiated drug price reductions, as well as global budgets to control spending growth over time. Replacing private insurers with a public system is expected to achieve lower net healthcare costs.<ref>PLOS Medicine | Projected Costs of Single-Payer Healthcare Financing in the United States: A Systematic Review of Economic Analyses</ref></blockquote>
====Access to Care and Lack of Insurance====
To make matters worse, a large chunk of the American population is uninsured, and many are forced to go without the care that they need. According to the ACP:<blockquote>The United States is the only wealthy industrialized nation without universal health coverage, a crucial component to ensuring quality health care for all without financial burden that causes delay or avoidance of necessary medical care... nearly 30 million remain uninsured, millions more are underinsured, and the number of uninsured persons is expected to grow.</blockquote>The high rate of uninsured people is extremely troubling, especially seeing as a lack of insurance is associated with increased risk of mortality. A 2009 study in the ''American Journal of Public Health'' said the following on the matter:<blockquote>Uninsurance is associated with mortality. [...] Lack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44 789 deaths per year in the United States, more than those caused by kidney disease.</blockquote>A 2017 study in the ''Annals of Internal Medicine'' validated these findings, saying:<blockquote>The evidence strengthens confidence in the Institute of Medicine's conclusion that health insurance saves lives: The odds of dying among the insured relative to the uninsured is 0.71 to 0.97.<ref>Annals of Internal Medicine | The Relationship of Health Insurance and Mortality: Is Lack of Insurance Deadly?</ref></blockquote>The high costs of US medical care cause a great deal of financial strain for patients. According to a 2019 study in the ''Journal of General Internal Medicine'' (carried out by the American Cancer Society), "medical financial hardship is common among adults in the USA, with nearly 140 million adults reporting hardship in the past year. Among those aged 18–64 years, more than half report problems with medical bills or medical debt; stress or worry; or forgoing or delaying health care due to cost." A 2019 Gallup poll found that 25% of Americans say that they or a family member have put off treatment for a "serious illness" in the past year because of cost, with a further 8% saying they or a family member has put off treatment for a "less serious illness" in the past year.<ref>Gallup Poll | More Americans Delaying Medical Treatment Due to Cost</ref>

Overall, there is strong evidence that the United States' lack of universal healthcare causes tens of thousands of deaths every year, and financial ruin for many more.
===Sources===
*Annals of Internal Medicine | Envisioning a Better U.S. Health Care System for All
*American Economic Association | Why is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States Than in Europe?
*Physicians for a National Health Program | America's Ranking on Amenable Mortality is an Embarrassment
*Journal of the American Medical Association | Is Single Payer the Answer for the US Health Care System?
*American Journal of Public Health | Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults
*Journal of General Internal Medicine | Prevalence and Correlates of Medical Financial Hardship in the USA
==See also==
*[[United States imperialism]]
*[[:Category:USA states|USA states (category)]]
*[[Nazi Germany]]
==References==
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==Notes==
<references group="lower-alpha" />