People who have spent some time discussing the economic status of USA know my person view about why US will loose the economic supremacy in coming years. A lot of people attribute the cause would be the higher gas price and since US consumes so much gas the cost to economy would be enormous.
My person view is that the health care cost in US will break the backbone of the middle class and if middle class does not have the purchasing power then there is no internal consumption to keep the pistons of the engine going.
Also for long I have held the view that if any of your family members is afflicted with a major disease ( like cancer etc) then you are bankrupt. It does not matter how much you earn. I do not have the link but the president of the American Cancer society himself mentioned that even if you are a millionaire and if you have a job which covers health care and if you baby is afflicted with cancer then you are going to be bankrupt if your baby survives longer than 5 years. Reason is coverage will take care of only 80%. But the rest 20% of the medical expendiure and the cost of medicine will be high enough to loose all your savings.
And if you think you are covered 100% then wait until you have hit with a catastrophy and then you will be introduced to the new definition of 100% by the health insurance providers.
Here is a comment posted on nytimes to get started .
