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He directly mentions how things have been improved since 2007, so no the comparison isn’t just to the 1940’s.

His point is people think American is much worse off than it actually is and he backs that up.

You could make the argument that America is great because we think we suck and drive ourselves harder than might be necessary. It's when you think you're great that you become complacent.

That's an interesting dichotomy considering that, from an outsider's perspective, America seems to have a lot more "We're #1", "Greatest nation on the planet", "boo when you hear someone else's national anthem" sentiment than anything else. Maybe it's a collective overcompensation? But it doesn't seem terribly self aware.

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