For decades United States and the Soviet Union were considered the superpowers because these are the dominant states that have proved themselves capable of casting great influence in global politics. After the Cold War, it appeared that only the United States fulfill the criteria to be considered the lone world superpower.  Although the criteria of a superpower are not clearly defined and thus they may differ, essentially being a superpower meant being able to project power measured along the four axes: military, economic, political, and cultural or soft power

And so Americans are used to being No. 1 in almost all aspects including world’s businesses, athletic endeavors, education, power, technology, and many more. The United States has long been considered the greener pasture and the dream of those who live in the Third World is to migrate to the US because this is where they will see, feel and experience their success. But pundits are now saying that America being the current superpower no longer holds true and that today’s complex global marketplace and the rising interdependency between the world's nations has made the belief of a superpower an idea of the past and that the world is now multipolar. This means that it is believed that there is a distribution of power in more than two nation-states having equal amounts of influence economically, culturally, and even in the military.

With America’s manufacturing industry moving overseas in the 70’s in order to cut-costs, this contributed to the rise of the economy of Japan, and more recently, of China and Mexico where they can find inexpensive labor. Suddenly, high-priced manufacturing jobs were no longer available for American workers in industrial workwear and everything else around declined along with it including as education and the health care system.

The era when the US was 1st in everything is over. American children are no longer the best educated in the world. In fact the world education ranking made by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) put the US at 14th place with Korea and Finland on top. We also no longer produce the healthiest population. Our economy is at standstill with unemployment rate at 9.2 percent as was last reported June of 2011. The US GDP no longer grows as quickly as it once did. Although America is fighting to remain competitive globally still many factors like current deficit, growing national debt, unemployment, and lack of government fund for R&D, contribute to a crippled economy.

There are now industries where the US no longer remains the top producer. For the better part of the century, the US has been the world’s single greatest producer of food. Though we still lead the production of commodities but improved farming practices and more advanced seed have allowed an increase in the yield per acres in countries like Vietnam, China and Russia. In other industries though we have been overtaken by China, Japan, and Russia making one wonder when they will finally overtake us. Economists are speculation how long it will take China to overtake the US since it has passed Japan for the No. 2 spot.

Here are some other industries the US is no longer the top producer:

Beer Production
Position: 2nd
Leader: China, with 423 million hectoliters in 2009
U.S.: 229 hectoliters in 2009

In 2000, US generated 232 million hectoliters while China only produced 220 million. In just nine years, Chine has doubled its production output to 423 million hectoliters while the American output has in fact decreased by 3 million to 229 million. One factor to consider is that the drinking population of China is 4 times larger than the US.

High-Technology Exports
Position: 2nd
Leader: China, $381 billion in 2008
U.S.: $231 billion in 2008

The World Bank describes high-technology exports as “products with high R&D intensity, such as in aerospace, computers, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and electrical machinery.” The United States prides itself in all fields but Chinese high-tech imports have increased more than 50% and the US remains first place only in the pharmaceutical industry.

Coal Production
Position: 2nd
Leader: China, with 3.3 billion short tons produced in 2009
U.S.: 1 billion short tons

Coal production in America is now a distant second to China which has three times more production at 3.3 billion. This is because America is no longer the world’s largest manufacturing company so the U.S. is no longer the largest consumer of energy for manufacturing purposes. While the American coal production has decreased over the years, the Chinese production continues to increase.

Lettuce Production
Position: 2nd
Leader: China, with 12.9 million metric tons
U.S.: 4.1 million metric tons

The food consumption of 1.3 billion Chinese is significantly higher than that of the US. The very high food demand has caused the domestic production of many crops in China to rise including lettuce.

Rice Production
Position: 11th
Leader: China, with 166 million metric tons produced between 2009 and 2010
U.S.: 6.9 million metric tons

China’s rice production at 166 million metric tons is 20 times more rice than the US. The U.S. rice production account for only 1% of the world’s total. With only 6.9 million metric tons production, it is not even in the top ten compared to the rest of the world but is the 3rd leading rice exporter since there is not much demand for it in the country. Of the total rice production 20% is exported.

Pork Production
Position: 2nd
Leader: China, with 51.5 million metric tons produced in 2010
U.S.: 10.2 million metric tons produced in 2010

The US continues to produce the most of agricultural commodities and also the largest consumption especially for beef and veal. The US pork production of 10.2 million though is less than a fifth of that in China with 51.5 million metric tons of pork.

Wind Energy Generated
Position: 2nd
Leader: China, with 42 gigawatts generated in 2010
U.S.: 40 gigawatts in 2010

Auto Industry
Position: 2nd
Leader: Japan, with 17 million autos produced by Japanese automakers in 2009
U.S.: 12 million autos produced by American automakers in 2009

Commercial Aircraft Production
Position: 2nd
Leader: Airbus (Europe) based on 574 orders in 2010
U.S.: Boeing, with 530 orders in 2010

Oil Production
Position: 3rd
Leader: Russia, with 10 million barrels produced each day
Saudi Arabia, with 9.7 million barrels per day
U.S.:  9 million barrels produced each day