Let me get this straight, we are cutting public works on our crumbling infrastructure

[iemitsu]

13. Except, perhaps we are the barbarians or

have become the barbarians.
Our strength used to stem from our dynamic ingenuity and the production of goods and ideas that that dynamism sponsored. Today whatever strength we have is due to our military and its advanced technologies. We have no moral authority any longer so the military has become our primary tool for directing foreign relations.
We have sacrificed our health care, our infrastructure, and our job and old age security for the world's largest military. And now we can't afford it either.
The privatization of public agencies and services and any crisis (social, economic, military) work together as tools that direct public funds into private pockets (trickle-up economics).
Clearly, it can't go on forever but it difficult to imagine what would work to change our course.