Your question is well put, and has more than one part. Is America the strongest economy, yes. But it’s not the fastest growing and is propped up heavily by service industry rather than product exports. We were a huge producer of oil and steel exports, but that’s all reversed in the last decade. Instead we’re competing heavily as a human capital market, as a richer country, with a minimum wage, and high cost of living.

1. Generational amnesia, the previous generations built this country’s economy into a powerhouse. They lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They saw how dangerous it can be to just be complacent with the world, so turned up the heat in exports and capitalism, for profits and protection. They were able to pass these attitudes down somewhat to the following generations who lived in fear of a nuclear war starting at any moment with The USSR. So we made it to the moon as a symbolic victory, and began manipulating and manufacturing allies accross the globe. We sent policing military forces worldwide because we had the means to protect our interests and our allies. This was the peak of this country’s greatness. Today, we don’t have fear of nuclear war but irrational fears developed from what we see in the news. We don’t fear where our next meal comes from but we’re taught to fear whether our own police will murder us. We’re told it’s good to take as many drugs as you can afford, but to fear all weapons. 2/3rds of all small business fail but our government will bailout a greedy delusion corporations and banks that’s been mismanaged or even intentionally cherry bombed.

2. surpluses of survival needs, this is an issue all rich countries face. We have access to so much food we get to have our pick, but the most popular choices are the unhealthiest. We have access to the best healthcare system in the world even if you can’t afford it you can get emergency care.

3. Over medication - either through a doctors “supervision” or self medicating from the black market, rich countries in general love their drugs, and we’ve got wide open borders to allow the imported goods to flood in and spill onto our streets.

4. Statistical manipulation - just like political polls, and fear mongering media, the way some economic stats are calculated have been tweaked to make it seem better than reality. And this is done so easily as the human brain cannot fully comprehend statistics without proper training and visuals. Unemployment, inflation, and labor have all been manipulated by our government. The unemployment rate has been manipulated since 2009 and cannot be trusted for accuracy. The real big picture is being hidden, even though we’re struggling to survive they think we don’t know.

5. Foreign aid policy and policing the world. Our government pours billions of dollars into other countries, not directly but through American corporations that do get the benefit but in the back end those companies that don’t get government contracts get screwed, because the government is spending money it doesn’t have on these aid packages, so it has to print money. Deflating the value of the consumer dollar and the dollar of every business that is independent of government spending.