[rmtech]

Social factors.

Today's governments wouldn't have the state capacity and ambition to achieve what those of the 1940s-1980s were capable of. We've regressed; we're incompetent and moat of our effort is directed at virtue signalling rather than progress.

Nuclear power is just one aspect of this.

[asdff]

Reading the histories of any public infrastructure project is just depressing. The dissolution of the works projects administration, which is sorely needed today given much of our infrastructure still dates to that period, and perhaps building a schoolhouse or a bridge is more productive and fruitful a job than driving for uber. The atomic energy commission throwing in the towel and dissolving in the face of public opposition (read: to save face for some politicians). The US freeway system being halted in its tracks in the 1960s and forever doomed to be overcapacity and congested in cities like Los Angeles. LA's multiple opportunities to construct a sprawling subway or elevated rail system decades ago when work was cheap, now lines cost billions and take decades, and are riddled with compromises to favor the automobile on the roads. A lack of any initiative to meaningfully coat an American city in bike and bus lanes, despite this advanced technology being merely a can of paint and a new citation on the books. A lack of any plan to stymie the crisis of mentally ill people living in danger on the street, who refuse voluntary aid.

It's hard to have hope for the future of our country when you can drive around and literally see it fall apart on a daily basis. I drive around on crumbling roads and see countless shanty towns and addicts 50 feet from $2 million dollar homes. I see median apartments priced where the median worker has to give half of their pay to their landlord. What's the plan? Pass the buck to the next guy in office forever, seemingly.