[prawn]

Another story about the same person and topic that I found insightful: "America is Regressing into a Developing Nation for Most People" - https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/america-is-r...

I have visited the US most years out of the last 5-10, including a trip through 25ish US states a couple of years ago. It's easy to get the impression that competing interests maintain a problematic or worsening status quo - infrastructure that has to be OK until it collapses because no one wants to prioritise the money to fix it (many roads in California are shocking). A voting system (as mentioned by @kristofferR) that makes it difficult for a viable third party to emerge. Health, education, private prison industries, etc.

There are parts of the United States that feel like they are struggling to survive - including areas that are quite eye-opening like Bombay Beach and Wonder Valley.

In Australia, we see lobbying groups dictate terms increasingly often too and I don't know that our country is better for it.

[tptacek]

Bombay Beach? Wonder Valley? I had to look both of those places up, and both are places with tiny populations. Can you help me understand why I should be thinking about places like those and not, say, Youngstown Ohio?

[tryitnow]

Good question. I had never heard of Bombay Beach but it's a fascinating story: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/salton-sea

Having said that, I think it has absolutely nothing to do with the article.

Wonder Valley also has an interesting story: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2014/12/the-last-homesteads-o...

There's a theme here of Southern California desert wastelands.

[prawn]

They were just two that I could easily remember driving through and with easy-to-Google names for anyone who wanted to see. We were driving through 25 states in two months with a couple of toddlers, so details are all over the place. Obviously as a visitor, you are taking in a whole range of things - ruinporn, state of urban areas (footpaths, cleanliness), retail, etc - rather than relying on data.

[alexandersingh]

I don't know about Bombay Beach but I was just in Wonder Valley in January and that town is a unique place with a self-selecting population that values isolation.

There are larger towns and cities in the U.S. which more accurately depict the broader economic challenges the country is facing.