A recent trip to Europe revealed a US left behind. Cranes rose everywhere, infrastructure gleamed, everything was clean, people were energetic, public transportation was effective, and space was used smartly. Trump’s blame game theory of success would have you believe Europe is succeeding thusly on America’s back through unfair trade and NATO underfunding. More likely, these countries are just focused effectively on their future. By contrast, our leadership pines for the good old days while our country rusts, bridges rot, and two jobs are often not enough.
Go to Europe and witness:
- Gleaming infrastructure – Bridges, transportation stations/modes, road conditions, and communications all were in top shape and in seamless working order. Almost every large town had modern, architecturally interesting bridges. Even 500 year old bridges were pristine. By contrast, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates US infrastructure restoration/updating needs over $4 Trillion, our politicians whine about it but do nothing, and our President has a temper tantrum and walks out of talks about it.
- Many cranes – It was hard to find a horizon without one or more cranes. Europe is building like crazy. Obviously the US has cranes but nothing like Europe. Cranes represent a belief in the future. Florida’s many cranes represent greed, not a belief in the future, because Florida will be underwater in the future.
- Clean, smart space – Europe does not have the luxury of boundless space as we do, so they optimize while we squander. In Europe, agriculture is local and ubiquitous, right up to a town’s back yard. The towns themselves are well organized and well maintained. Perhaps when US population density matches Europe’s we, too, will optimize and manicure, but perhaps our slovenly use of land and monstrous centralized agribusiness will no longer be able to adapt.
- Public transportation – Swiss train schedules run on time by the minute. Trams in Basel and Amsterdam run everywhere throughout those cities and thus are highly utilized, clean, frequent, and pleasant to use. Perhaps this was out of necessity because Medieval town design is not conducive to modern auto needs, but it proves that public transportation can work.
- Roads – Besides being in generally good shape (even the Medieval adaptations), perhaps the most striking thing about roads in Europe is the degree to which they accommodate bicycles. Most roads have distinct bike borders and many have separate bike paths. This is taken to the extreme in a city like Amsterdam, which has parking lots each with thousands of bikes and bikes everywhere (rain or shine), so much so that one must relearn how to cross the street. That is a lot of avoided carbon!
Most Americans have grown up believing that our standard of living is the best in the world and that we are specially blessed. This is no longer true, although it may have been true for a while after World War 2. While we used to travel to Europe to see how things used to be, now we can go to Europe to see how things can be. If we stop looking in the rearview mirror and start looking out the windshield like the rest of the world, perhaps we could make America great again.