While the United States is both the richest as well as the most powerful nation in the world, and has a Constitution dating back to the 18th century, it is not currently the country that it should be, and most certainly is not the country that it was founded to be. For instance, some of the very reasons why so many Europeans emigrated to America, was for the opportunity that America represented, in the sense of freedom in general, and specifically as it related to the freedom of religion, the freedom of movement, the freedom of commerce, and the freedom to not be compelled to having to pay homage through military service or taxation or tribute to autocratic governmental authorities.
While in America, to a certain extent, there can be a great opportunity to create one's own destiny, this is predetermined to a very significant extent by the circumstances of where a given person is birthed, and specifically to the family structure, income, and educational facilities that are available within and around their local community. That is to say, America can be an absolutely wonderful place to get a great education and to have a real opportunity for advancement and success in one's life, especially when circumstances favor that very thing, by virtue of being in the right place and with right infrastructure around. On the other hand, there are an incredible amount of communities in America that are impoverished, and are desperately lacking in hope, opportunity, and the general good welfare of those that are birthed within that environment. For those people, the handicap that they will need to overcome is so daunting, that a reasonable chance for good success is more often than not, is not going to occur.
The biggest problem that America has is its gargantuan division between the privileged few at the top that are exceedingly rich and powerful, in stark contrast to the excessive amount of people at the bottom that are poor, oppressed, and exploited, of which these unfortunate people are both impoverished as well as powerless. This fundamental flaw within America is why it suffers from so much tension, hatred, and hostility, which is displayed by its high violent crime rate, its surprisingly high degree of those that are functionally illiterate, its general incivility, and the overall lack of hope, personified in its urban ghettos.
Further to the point, America clearly has made a determination that rather than to proactively address the systemic problems that it has in regards to poverty, opportunity, equality, fairness, and hope, it has decided to spend inordinate amounts of money instead on its military, thereby taking away from the social welfare monies and necessary infrastructure that could be of real and meaningful assistance to those that have so little.
To make meaningful change within America is something that necessitates money, dedication, persistence, and the absolute determination to do what needs to be done so that all people within America are afforded at a minimum the basic rights and common decency that a great nation owes to its own people; for this is supposed to be a nation for, by, and of the people, but clearly instead we have a significant portion of our people that have been left far behind, and thereby stand outside our golden door -- lost, forlorn, cold, tired, forsaken, hungry, and hurting.