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
Kind of a first mover problem. A lot of infrastructure was built 30-50 years ago. It’s barely maintained and rarely upgraded.
Other places like Asia and Europe heavily invest in public infrastructure regularly.
An example of this is internet service. Like 10-15 years ago, Thailand had pretty terrible internet speeds. Now bare minimum speeds are like 500mbs and all cellular coverage is 5G and similarly as fast. This is like $20 a month for home internet and similar for your cell plan. In the US, we have stupid regulations that keep from real competition in internet services and cellular services so we’re stuck with much more expensive and much slower speeds