What happened to U.S. public infrastructure?
6 octor_stranger 4 8/3/2025, 1:37:13 AM
Where is the high-speed bullet train, the high-power dam, and the new skyscraper? It seems like U.S. public infrastructure peaked in the '90s and has stopped developing.
When I was a kid, I always looked up to the U.S. as a modern, first-world country. I thought they had to keep developing—but it seems like everything peaked in the '90s and 2000s and then just stopped. Now, the U.S. mostly consists of rural areas, rows of private houses, a Walmart here and there, and massive highways. That’s it. What happened?
US was ahead of the world 25 years ago, it supposed to be ahead of the world 25 years as of right now but we don't see it's the case anymore compare other country similar in size like China.
People are so individually different in values/ambitions/knowledge/skill/personality etc etc they start thinking about their own needs and run in different directions. Sooner or later what holds the group together is nothing. Philosopher Charles Taylor calls it the immanent frame but they don't teach Philosophy these days.
Things that last are Religion (shared stories that hold people together).
Religions have learnt long ago (the hard way) keeping very different types of people together for the long term, involves making them focus on something much larger than themselves.
So we still have the Vatican or Islam or Judaism or Hinduism etc that have lasted longer the Nations. Nations come and go.