American exceptionalism is odd, in that sometimes it is "we are better than everyone else", but sometimes it is "we can't have the nice things that all other rich countries have, because [nonsense reason]".
A popular one is 'density', and, okay, maybe this is somewhat true if you're talking about, say, Wyoming (though I think not as true as people often think), but California, for instance, has an only slightly lower population density than _France_, and at that point "we can't have proper transport/telecoms/whatever because density" is just an excuse, and not a convincing one.
The reason we can't have whatever nice things you want is because California doesn't want to spend the money on that nice thing, and it has to maintain a budget, unlike nations. Including a $40 Billion project on a budget makes many, many other things go away. Even if it's just temporarily to help pay for the construction of the service, the point stands.
So imagine if France couldn't go into debt - only the EU can. France wants a giga-train suddenly, so they ask for it. The current leader of the EU isn't a fan of more trains, so he turns it down. France goes back to its people and says "we can build the giga-train if we do XYZ", and people vote based on whether or not they want XYZ or the giga-train more.
I think it's possible you just might want things different from what others want. That study a while back which showed most Americans want cheap public transit so that everyone else gets off the road and gives them more space lives rent free in my head. Nobody wants these stupid trains.
I mean, yeah, the US having systemic problems which make capital investment difficult, or at least extremely slow, is _part_ of it, but there's also just a tendency to a complacent "we have these problems because we are _special_ and they can't be fixed" attitude amongst many Americans (I say this as an outside observer).
california is ~160,000mi^2 and france is ~244,000mi^2 (423 megameters squared, 632 megameters squared, metric), the population density, respectively, is 251/mi^2 and 281/mi^2. You're comparing an entire country to a single state (2% of the US states, in fact.)
I like to point stuff like this out whenever someone compares an entire EU country to some US state.
note: i edited the france density, as i did accidentally transcribe the wrong value. France is slightly denser per sqkm.
Yep. As an american I keep giving WTFs every time media discuss potential solutions to problems without even considering how other places solved them. It's like other countries don't exist, or hide their secrets.
Not just broadband, but same with healthcare, homelessness, gerrymandering etc. Just copy-paste little by little.
I was thinking the same thing until I learned about the high speed train plans California had (and still have?) and just how much of a disaster it is. It’s a red tape issue and nobody at the policy level seems to care to fix it.
It really is. I keep wondering when some tiny bit of humility will show up, but it is increasingly like asking Russians to have some humility. Not likely, and sometimes, not possible.
