[perseusprime11]

A real-life example of this is the current commute mess in NY/NJ area. There is free wifi on the streets but subways and train stations are falling apart with no visioning for commuter growth over the last 5 years and the next 5 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/nyregion/report-disputes-c... goes into some of the mess and lack of accountability.

[eru]

We already know how to solve these problems: just do whatever Singapore does.

[perseusprime11]

and what is that?

[eru]

It's a bit of a complex topic. There's lots to learn from how their civil service is run, and how infrastructure is build, how the legal system is set up, etc.

My comment comes from having lived there and seeing what results they achieve in practice---without relying on eg oil money.

The main barrier to adopting Singaporean methods for eg "current commute mess in NY/NJ area" would be institutional, not technical.

Some very quick Googling turned up eg http://www.alphr.com/life-culture/1005939/building-a-smart-c... and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32028693 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Singapore

[perseusprime11]

Thanks for coming back to reply. Too bad hacker news does not notify you about such things. Do you think the Singapore model can scale to larger countries? I've heard a lot of arguments around healthcare, education and transportation models from Europe don't scale beyond those small countries. Any thoughts?