This is the natural outcome when you optimize a society for 1/ lowest taxes in the developed world, 2/ no expectation of a social safety net, 3/ biggest possible upside to start a business, get rich, and become a millionaire or a billionaire.
Planet Money did a whole series of trying to set up an offshore company and realized that despite their reputation, Cayman Islands and the like actually do more due diligence of new companies than Delaware does.
The US is the best place in the world to start a company and get obscenely wealthy. As long as you take the risk that if you are unemployed you might die on the street destitute.
This incentivizes all sorts of antisocial behaviour like whole industries dependent on the lack of structure in the rest of society (the legal field, insurance, healthcare -> none of which are nowhere nearly as big or as lucrative in the rest of the developed world).
It also means every construction project is an opportunity for the enrichment of someone, rather than being done by the state for the betterment of society. Rail infrastructure and good transit in general is an incredible societal equalizer, and works best when it's basic, cheap, but reliable, frequent, and consistent. Which the US is just not incentivized to provide.
So instead, these projects become vanity opportunities to suck up as much wealth and at least help some middle class construction workers make lucrative bank. Good for them I guess. Don't see any other possible outcome in America today, such as it is.
Planet Money did a whole series of trying to set up an offshore company and realized that despite their reputation, Cayman Islands and the like actually do more due diligence of new companies than Delaware does.
The US is the best place in the world to start a company and get obscenely wealthy. As long as you take the risk that if you are unemployed you might die on the street destitute.
This incentivizes all sorts of antisocial behaviour like whole industries dependent on the lack of structure in the rest of society (the legal field, insurance, healthcare -> none of which are nowhere nearly as big or as lucrative in the rest of the developed world).
It also means every construction project is an opportunity for the enrichment of someone, rather than being done by the state for the betterment of society. Rail infrastructure and good transit in general is an incredible societal equalizer, and works best when it's basic, cheap, but reliable, frequent, and consistent. Which the US is just not incentivized to provide.
So instead, these projects become vanity opportunities to suck up as much wealth and at least help some middle class construction workers make lucrative bank. Good for them I guess. Don't see any other possible outcome in America today, such as it is.