I’m back in the states for holidays but this time it was such a shock to realize everything looks so old, like from the airport to the convenience stores, malls, gas stations, etc. Why does everything look like it hasn’t changed from the 90s? And I was out just for a couple of months but things look newer and shinier in Panama and El Salvador compared to here. I cannot even imagine what some of you coming back from east Asia must feel. Did our country peak in the 90s and other countries are going through their renaissance? I love the convenience of the US where everything is open 24 hrs and you can get things delivered to your door basically overnight if you pay the price but I feel like we’re stuck with very old and boring infrastructure, makes me feel almost the same way I felt when I went to eastern Europe
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Read that as “everyone looks so old”. Was just thinking, geez thanks… 😂
The simple answer is that the US is in decline.
It’s a slow decline, barely perceptible, but historians centuries from now will point to the country’s crumbling infrastructure, lawlessness, and profound social division at this time as emblematic of its inevitable downward spiral.
Ray Dalio has a fascinating (if long) video on YouTube that talks about empires and their rise and fall and in it he hypothesizes where the US is on its decline. Its early, but it is in decline
lawlessness? Crime has declined sharply from our ‘prime’ decades, the 80s and 90s. The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough police, the problem is an extreme wealth divide and a government that is uninterested in investing in the future.
The 90s were a great time
Basically downhill since then. Just shows that nothing is static, everything changes. Maybe when we’re all old farts the US will be on top again, or maybe not. That’s why I value being mobile.
I love the convenience of the US where everything is open 24 hrs
Lolwut
Even in major east coast cities it’s a struggle to find anything open 24/7 outside of NYC
You answered your own question. Obviously the US peaked first. It doesn’t look like it changed since the 90s because it hasn’t.
They use their money on wars, not their own country or its people… simple as that.
Lol, how can people be so incorrect?
I think the US spends too much on Military, but it still was less than 12% of federal spending in 2022.
It doesn’t? You just are in a shitty area
OP hasn’t stepped out of the newest Asian megamall and thinks the entire continent is like that.
I’ve lived in Eastern Europe my whole life and I’ve been to multiple cities and towns in the US. There is NO COMPARISON between the 2, you’re being ridiculous. Eastern europe is centuries behind the US…
Darling, 90s is brand new by US standards. You probably drove on a century-old bridge on your way back home, and it was not made to last that long, or carry so many cars.
It’s because our Constitution is so old and government doesn’t serve the people anymore.
Commercial landlords pocket the 10% yearly maintenance portion of payments so they can get new tits for the girlfriend and a third home in Aspen. All those commercial buildings have been melting into the earth for decades. Also, the USA can’t build nice things anymore.
US builds shit to last only 30 years. Concrete vs stone. Solid wood vs plastic. Etc. Prob is 30 years later you can def see it.
Not really what you were getting at, but actually yes the US did peak in the 90s. It was the height of our global power and influence before 9/11 and the forever wars. We had high quality of life, and a political climate that was far less polarized.
It’s been a 20 year triple whammy of 9/11, the 2008 market crash, and then Covid coming along and deeply splintering society even more than it was.
This right here. This is so true.
That’s not surprising considering the US government seems to care more about funding proxy wars than taking care of it’s own people. Imagine what the over $150 billion that has been spent trying to make Ukraine “win” could have done for US infrastructure? But nah, they wanna send another $60 billion to help Ukraine “win” instead, despite the prior $150 billion not having come even close to that, and it won’t by they way, but believe whatever you want. It was funny hearing Jenet Yellen saying the US can fund both the Israeli and Ukraine wars at the same time, and take care of the US. Hahaha, yeah, sure ma’am.
In the 90s they were designing buildings for low maintenance - older buildings need to get a lick of paint every few years but newer buildings get left for much longer - eventually someone has to decide whether to spend a large amount of money to refurbish a building that ain’t that pretty…
Generally: our cities are in bad shape and are in decline. Most expanded too big too fast due to subsidies and an abundance of land + wealth, and generations later can’t afford to maintain basic infrastructure. And if you’re in a part of town where you can visibly tell your government isn’t making the reinvestments to maintain basic stuff, you wouldn’t be incentivized to fork up lots of capital to maintain your own property/business.