FDR built the American infrastructure and at the same time created large numbers of jobs, helping push us out of the depression. Obama should do the same.
Of course America doesn't have a territorial claim to all of the water in the world. Do you think I'm stupid? My point is that America is uncontested in the seas. It has the ability to control the waters and therefore the vast majority of international trade.
America's schooling system is failing due to policies remaining from segregation-era America. People who make less money are almost always clumped together in housing. They pay less school taxes, therefore their local schools get less money. They are also forced to only go to the schools that are in their district, aka the ones that are poorly funded.
Another thing that makes the American school system fall behind is the lack of national standards for curriculum. From district to district you find schools teaching things of vastly different levels.
And let's not forget the purposeful handicapation of young kids' learning by the fundamentalists.
I am entirely against war. My point is that America simply has the ability to control trade in the world. America also borders two oceans which a vast majority of goods are shipped across. We also essentially have indirect control of the Panama Cbrown town (Panama is our bitch, lol.)
Our infrastructure is still superior to that of developing countries who you say rival us in their economies. It's doing poorly by our standards, but is excellent by Chinese standards.