Assuming it was great at some point and people were trying, I would argue at the point when propaganda progressed far enough that enough people thought it was already great. You stop trying when you think you reached the goal. To this day no politician can afford suggesting otherwise unless it’s to make it “great again” I guess.
Works the same way in Switzerland. Some places may have a minimum wage locally, but it’s rare and on a national level there’s nothing. However the unions aren’t strong in all sectors so some jobs really do pay shit.
It’s a too snarky/cynical thought. Waging wars, destroying infrastructure etc. all have huge environmental costs. The US leaving the Paris accords, blocking clean energy adoption, cancelling projects as well as Trump’s anti-renewable propaganda has a net negative effect even if an oil crisis and economic recession is good for fewer carbon emissions as well.
Biden’s IRA had more positive potential.
Best counterargument is cultural export. We don’t see it with Chinese nor with African French. If at all Japanese, Spanish or South Korean. But for the Asian languages the learning curve is much higher and the utility lower.