Every teacher after the first few years is well compensated. With benefits, time of and salary they do well.
I think that is a fairytale. Most teachers struggle because they have to spread a nine month salary (3 months unpaid summer vacation) over 12 months. On top of that, elementary school teachers have to buy supplies for their classes out of their own pocket. The national average starting teacher salary is $44,530 at the moment; the national average teacher salary is $69,544 (2023/24 numbers). Deduct taxes, and you can barely pay the rent. The benefits only become a factor once a teacher retires - the main reason why the teacher's union kills local budgets.
School of choice should be a local issue, not national.
So every school district should have its own curriculum? That doesn't work.
Being a super power means having the ability to wipe out an enemy
For the US it has always meant to have the ability to interfere with troops anywhere on the planet. That's why we have over 800 military bases worldwide, a huge and costly navy, and so on. The country can return to isolationism as it did after WW1, but that means to hand everything over to the Chinese. Ain't going to happen in my opinion.
That is how wealthy people think.
Wealthy people are always in debt ... on paper. That's how they stay wealthy. On the other hand: why should multi billionaires be allowed to hoard so much cash that they can literally buy any country and any politician they like? People like Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos and others are way too powerful, and that's dangerous. There will come a day when the guillotines reappear.