I’m back in the states for holidays but this time it was such a shock to realize everything looks so old, like from the airport to the convenience stores, malls, gas stations, etc. Why does everything look like it hasn’t changed from the 90s? And I was out just for a couple of months but things look newer and shinier in Panama and El Salvador compared to here. I cannot even imagine what some of you coming back from east Asia must feel. Did our country peak in the 90s and other countries are going through their renaissance? I love the convenience of the US where everything is open 24 hrs and you can get things delivered to your door basically overnight if you pay the price but I feel like we’re stuck with very old and boring infrastructure, makes me feel almost the same way I felt when I went to eastern Europe
Because we build fast and expand, it's cheap, we have lots of space and land generally. In contrast places I've seen in Europe build slow and compact, probably to last. I've seen abandoned commercial/shopping malls in the US, like entire malls with a maybe a few businesses taking up residence but mostly empty. They just are incentivized to build newer near upcoming areas as we are car driven and the radius of neighborhoods within a certain area make a difference in who will come.