Global Research
According to Dictionary.com, alternative definition of a Banana Republic is: Any exploitative government that functions poorly for its citizenry while disproportionately benefiting a corrupt elite group or individual.
Doesn’t this fit very well to today’s America?
Today, the most corrupt president in American history is ruling America along with his sycophants. And a corrupt, cowardly Republican ruled Congress and Senate does nothing to prevent this corrupt administration led by this president who is bent on enriching himself and his family while the American middle-class and the poor suffer tremendous hardships.
As reported by Independent of UK, on who qualifies for SNAP—Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—are expected to squeeze millions of families off these benefits in the coming years. And President Donald Trump is threatening to cut even more Americans from the country’s largest anti-hunger program if they live in Democratic-led states.
Meanwhile, housing for the middle-class and the poor families is becoming unaffordable as rents are rising in major cities where these people live. For millions of Americans, the ‘American Dream’ has become the ‘American Nightmare’.
This is not because America is poor, running out of money. It is because America is controlled by the superrich and this president along with these billionaires don’t give a damn for the Middle Class and the poor Americans.
Inequality in America
America is a very unequal country for a major country. As per usafacts.org as of 2023, the top 1% of American households owned 30.0% of net worth, or 30 cents of every dollar. This has risen from 22.8% in 1990 and 28.4% at the start of the 2008 recession but is lower than a 2021 peak of 30.9%.
The total net worth of the top 1% in 2023 was $43.0 trillion. More than 95% of American wealth has been concentrated among the wealthiest half of American households for decades. In 1990, the top 50% by net worth held 96.6% of wealth, less than one percentage point lower than that group’s share in 2023.
That share peaked at 99.6% in 2010 and 2011, when the bottom half of the country’s households by net worth held 0.5% and 0.4% of wealth, respectively. But in 2025, this situation has just worsened.
By definition, the Banana Republic’s main income comes from a single export, like bananas. Similarly, America’s major export is arms of destruction: Fighter jets, cruise missiles, tanks, guns, helicopters, and a host of other arms meant to kill people. America has been a ‘Merchant of Death’ for many years exporting its killing machines around the world.
As per Geopoliticaleconomy.com, US is world’s no.1 arms dealer, exporting 43% of world’s weapons: 7X more than China, 5X more than Russia.
In fact, Russia’s global arms exports declined by 64% from 2020 to 2024, and China’s fell by 5.4%, whereas those of the US grew by 21%.
By far, USA is world’s top military spender.
In addition to exporting more weapons than any other nation, the United States spends the most on its military than many nations combined.
The US represented 37% of global military expenditure in 2023. This means that the US dedicated more money to its armed forces than the next nine largest spenders combined.
The US spent three times more on its military than China, and eight times more than Russia. Today, according to SIPRI’s April 2025 release, US Defense Budget stands at near $1 trillion, even though the cold war was over many years ago and there is no enemy in sight; Now, the Trump administration has requested for $1.5 trillion Defense Budget for fiscal 2027, a misplaced priority and a foolish policy.
Opioid Crisis
As per cdc.gov, from 1999-2023, approximately 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose. This includes overdose deaths involving prescription and illegal opioids. Approximately 105,000 people died from drug overdose in 2023 and nearly 80,000 of those deaths involved opioids (about 76%). Nearly 47,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the United States in 2023, according to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to Oxfam, as of September 9, 2025 report, New data shows 43.7 million people live in poverty in America, the richest country in the world.
This shows how much the American government cares for its people!
While this country maintains more overseas military bases than any other country in the world. In 2023, the US had 750 military bases in 80 countries. Why? To project its dominance and power. While US is trying to control the world, it cannot control its own country; otherwise, how come they could not control and avoid about a million opioid deaths for so many years? Was it shear negligence and apathy on the part of the US governments? There seems to be something drastically wrong with their priorities.
Wars Every Few Years
America is addicted to wars ever since its birth. Since World War II, America has gone to wars with many countries or invaded many nations. The Vietnam War, Then Panama Invasion, Granada invasion, proxy war against Nicaraguan, Overthrow of President Allende of Chile, The Afghanistan War, Two Iraq Wars, Kosovo War, Overthrow and killing of Gaddafi of Libya, assassinations of several leaders of other countries etc. etc. Since World War II, America has destroyed more than 50 democracies and/or democratic movements around the world.
Why all these carnage and violence? Root cause being every so often US is ruled by unwise presidents who suffer from arrogance of power. But there are other underlying reasons. The U.S. is after the resources of other countries. Especially their oil. An unfriendly regime does not let the U.S. control its oil. So, America does the “Regime Change” in these countries and installs a puppet regime who lets its oil resources for America to exploit. We have seen this in Iraq War, the Libya War, and now the Iran War.
Now, since February 28, 2026, this president has embarked on a foolishly criminal war with Iran! What a stupid and disastrous war! This also at the urging by Israeli genocidal Prime Minister Netanyahu. What harm has Iran done to America?
Every empire has been doing this for centuries. It was the British Empire two centuries ago who went around the world colonizing countries around the world exploiting their resources. Like in their Indian colony, they ruled for 200-plus years and looted $45 trillion dollars from them. Similarly, they looted Africa, and other countries of the world. Now America has been doing this especially since World War-II.
Now, the American Empire is foolishly continuing following in the footsteps of the British and the earlier empires of history while the world pays the heavy price.
One wonders when will America mind its own business, taking care of its own people, their problems and live in peace with the rest of the world?
* Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.
Chaitanya Davé is an engineer and a businessman. He has authored three books: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: A Shocking Record of US Crimes since 1776-2007, COLLAPSE: Civilization on the Brink-2010, CAPITALISM’S MARCH OF DESTRUCTION: Replacing it with People and Nature-Friendly Economy. Author of many articles on politics, history, and the environment. Founder/President of a non-profit charity foundation helping the poor villagers of India, Nepal, Haiti, USA-homeless and other poor countries. He can be contacted at cahumanity@gmail.com.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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