[hanniabu]

> How is America behind on this?

We don't invest in the future, only immediate profits. Look at any other infrastructure....subways, roads, water, electrical, government systems, education, recycling, etc. They're all crumbling.

[missedthecue]

Subways, roads, water, electrical, government systems, education, and recycling are generally government run. "Immediate profits" isn't the excuse, because that isn't part of the equation. It's the fundamental inefficiency of government.

If your description was accurate, Ford would still be trying to sell their Model T rather than continuously investing in the future at a cost of today's profit. Obviously, this hasn't happened.

[hanniabu]

They're "government run" in the sense that the government hires out contractors and there's horrible oversight and incentive to create conditions where you receive more work.

For example, with education we keep expanding funding for private schools (for profit) over public schools. With subways in NYC we give out absurd amounts of cash to MTA to run it and just hope they're being honest, but costs keep increasing and there's very little to be shown for it. With government systems we could invest in great infrastructure, but why invest in a long term solution that decreases maintenance when you can be charged ridiculous amounts by the only contractor that knows the frankenstein codebase that they purposely developed to be unmanageable.