Thank you for this, I will follow your work hereon out. I have been thinking about this for a long time, but didn't have the framework to talk about it cogently enough.

The only "difference" I have with this is that I think 4th America died, or began its death throes, in 1980. After 1945, 4th America became the country of the great Middle Class. Jobs were generally plentiful and stable, leading to comfortable pensions for workers. Home ownership exploded. The expansion Westward took on a new life. America was unequivocally the leader of the world in many areas, not just economic. Higher education boomed, the envy of the world. And there was a general feeling that we were all in this together (a hangover of WWII no doubt).

Not everything was roses, of course. We had the Vietnam War, the Cold War, women's rights were suppressed, Blacks and minorities were oppressed. But we were making progress in all these areas - we passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, women's liberation (forerunner to feminism) took off, the environment flooded into the American conscience and politics. We had Nixon and Watergate, but in those days we actually punished the perps.

Then Powell sent his famous letter to the Chamber of Commerce in 1971 and things began to change. Just as the robber barons took over much of the country in the late 19th century, the new robber barons began to use their wealth to control not just politics, but the media, higher education, the financial system, labor rights, and began to foster cultural wars within society. For most of post WWII in America the richest 1% took home about 8% of the national income. Today that figure stands at about 25%. About 50 trillion dollars was transferred out of the main economy into the financial accounts of the richest 1% between 1975 and today.

And in 1980 everything started to unravel. If you look at many charts of the general economy, poverty, health and welfare, labor and employment, education, politics, and cultural norms, there is very often a major break in the few years around 1980. And always for the worst for the bulk of the American people.

So I think the death of 4th America began around 1980, and it has been hanging by a thread ever since, and that thread is about to break, as you suggest. I think the great experiment has failed, with the biggest impediment to progress being the Constitution. I have been a proponent of ending the US federation in favor of regional nations for a couple of decades now. I am greatly encouraged by your chart showing how many others agree. I see no other options, or we might just see a total general collapse. Secession will be tumultuous, there will be winners and losers, it will result in the next great migration, there will be unintended consequences. But if we approach it carefully, rationally, studiously, I believe it will start the next great rebirth on this continent.

Thanks again for this. More, please.