[bparsons]

Japan is just better at building stuff. They have very advanced industrial policy which ensures that they have the capacity to manufacture goods and build stuff better than anyone else in the world. Even if the US had a functioning political system, it would still take decades to catch up.

The IRA is a good first step, but it doesn't begin to address the underlying problems in the US economy. If you let the free market decide everything, it will always be more profitable to invest your money in a SAAS company or a suburban strip mall.

The two countries are optimizing for very different things, and are dealing with a very different set of conditions.