really jarring coming back to the US after traveling to Asia for the last three weeks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those who say the US is the greatest country ever have never left the country, IMO.

This past holiday season showed one of the biggest flaws in the US: reliance on and build-up of one method of travel (air) over all others to the point where that method is a monopoly and has no incentive to offer adequate service.

Imagine if we expanded our rail infrastructure to where we could go from DC to Chicago in 6 hours instead of 18?

Air travel wouldn't be so over-crowded if other methods existed. If you want to go from DC to CA to visit grandma for Christmas in a reasonable amount of time, you are 100% reliant on the airlines to get you there.

I’ve been to 78 countries and I absolutely believe the Us is the greatest country. Love traveling and visiting/even living in other countries for short stints but incredibly grateful to call the US home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean Japan can afford all that because they aren’t really funding a military are they? We are their defense. Did they have that great infrastructure before the war? We didn’t destroy the entire country.

The US is by no means the perfect place but it really bothers me when people visit abroad and suddenly think they are so worldly to come home and trash their home country because they spent two weeks visiting tourist traps. The world is a bit more complicated than that and if you truly were well-traveled you would know this.

Agree. OP sounds naive.

Just like Iraq and Afghanistan, right? How's that multiple trillions of dollars worth of freedom the US dropped on their countries working out for them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You people saying the US has given up on development and infrastructure need to get out more. You’re spending too much time in the Northeast. Head South and West, my friends.

Rail infrastructure is every bit, if not more important as type of infrastructure as roads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people saying the US has given up on development and infrastructure need to get out more. You’re spending too much time in the Northeast. Head South and West, my friends.

Rail infrastructure is every bit, if not more important as type of infrastructure as roads.

Does Australia have an impressive rail infrastructure? I don’t see how a country as large as ours (similar to Australia) could have high speed passenger rail outside of the northeast. It’s like complaining one can’t sail a boat between LA and NY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean Japan can afford all that because they aren’t really funding a military are they? We are their defense. Did they have that great infrastructure before the war? We didn’t destroy the entire country.

The US is by no means the perfect place but it really bothers me when people visit abroad and suddenly think they are so worldly to come home and trash their home country because they spent two weeks visiting tourist traps. The world is a bit more complicated than that and if you truly were well-traveled you would know this.

Agree. OP sounds naive.

Just like Iraq and Afghanistan, right? How's that multiple trillions of dollars worth of freedom the US dropped on their countries working out for them?

We have no idea what would have happened had we not been involved or spent that money. It’s easy to judge now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had similar thoughts after spending time in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2019. Felt light years ahead of us - and they've done it all in such a short amount of time. Really changes your perspective

I am Chinese. The thing is there's a LOT of labor. I mean everyone has a housekeeper. Everyone has a nanny. Labor can be found easily and thus, shit gets built in like a day literally I agree that it's impressive, I'm just saying from a practical perspective, it's not that hard to do when you have a zillion people working on a project anywhere, anytime Here in the US, labor is NOT easy. I am a professional corporate recruiter and yeah, it's not easy to hire for anything, from truck drivers to CPAs. People here have expectations.

That labor often doesn’t get paid well. And that ‘labor’ often gets treated very poorly. Same story in India.

Not a very robust OSHA to be found in China. Workers are seen as dispensable. As we saw what happened in Qatar.

Singapore runs on the backs of foreign workers too. The helpers and foreign laborers aren’t treated well. The foreign laborers were kept in virtual prison during COVID as they weren’t allowed to leave their dorms. It is awful.

[Anonymous]

I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

I was also just in the UK and the locals there were all talking about how ashamed they were of the shambles their country was in….train strikes, border force strikes (which necessitated bringing in the British armed forces to step in at Heathrow) baggage handlers strikes, bus strikes, ambulance driver strikes, and nurses strikes all taking place simultaneously last month.

In Frankfurt, Germany where we flew on to it was taking on average over 2 hours to clear customs at the airport during the holiday period.

That’s great that you anecdotally had a smooth experience, but to universalize as if Europe isn’t also subject to extreme (and in my experience far more frequent) travel disruptions is ludicrous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

We were in the same line at Dulles; it was ridiculous and embarrassing and those kids with yellow jackets were useless. Immigration needs an engineer with solid experience in logistics to optimize the lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had similar thoughts after spending time in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2019. Felt light years ahead of us - and they've done it all in such a short amount of time. Really changes your perspective

I am Chinese. The thing is there's a LOT of labor. I mean everyone has a housekeeper. Everyone has a nanny. Labor can be found easily and thus, shit gets built in like a day literally I agree that it's impressive, I'm just saying from a practical perspective, it's not that hard to do when you have a zillion people working on a project anywhere, anytime Here in the US, labor is NOT easy. I am a professional corporate recruiter and yeah, it's not easy to hire for anything, from truck drivers to CPAs. People here have expectations.

That labor often doesn’t get paid well. And that ‘labor’ often gets treated very poorly. Same story in India.

Not a very robust OSHA to be found in China. Workers are seen as dispensable. As we saw what happened in Qatar.

Singapore runs on the backs of foreign workers too. The helpers and foreign laborers aren’t treated well. The foreign laborers were kept in virtual prison during COVID as they weren’t allowed to leave their dorms. It is awful.

As if Americans can speak out on this subject when the US imports millions of illegal workers from south of the border who work in slave like conditions for low pay. This is glass houses....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

I was also just in the UK and the locals there were all talking about how ashamed they were of the shambles their country was in….train strikes, border force strikes (which necessitated bringing in the British armed forces to step in at Heathrow) baggage handlers strikes, bus strikes, ambulance driver strikes, and nurses strikes all taking place simultaneously last month.

In Frankfurt, Germany where we flew on to it was taking on average over 2 hours to clear customs at the airport during the holiday period.

That’s great that you anecdotally had a smooth experience, but to universalize as if Europe isn’t also subject to extreme (and in my experience far more frequent) travel disruptions is ludicrous.

I flew into Munich for Christmas and it took 15 minutes to clear the customs. Everything was organized and running smoothly. What did you do, went to the EU citizens' booths?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people saying the US has given up on development and infrastructure need to get out more. You’re spending too much time in the Northeast. Head South and West, my friends.

Rail infrastructure is every bit, if not more important as type of infrastructure as roads.

Does Australia have an impressive rail infrastructure? I don’t see how a country as large as ours (similar to Australia) could have high speed passenger rail outside of the northeast. It’s like complaining one can’t sail a boat between LA and NY.

Sure you could, start by connecting major metropolitan areas. LA to SF (you could even expand that from San Diego up to Seattle). Houston-Dallas-Austin-San Antonio. Miami-Ft Lauderdale-Orlando-Tampa. Extend the Acela past DC through Richmond, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Atlanta. Chicago-St. Louis.

You don’t have to connect the entire country to make huge changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

I was also just in the UK and the locals there were all talking about how ashamed they were of the shambles their country was in….train strikes, border force strikes (which necessitated bringing in the British armed forces to step in at Heathrow) baggage handlers strikes, bus strikes, ambulance driver strikes, and nurses strikes all taking place simultaneously last month.

In Frankfurt, Germany where we flew on to it was taking on average over 2 hours to clear customs at the airport during the holiday period.

That’s great that you anecdotally had a smooth experience, but to universalize as if Europe isn’t also subject to extreme (and in my experience far more frequent) travel disruptions is ludicrous.

Europe really isn't that great overall compared to their counterparts in Asia. Asia's first world countries just work. Everything is on time and people do their jobs without complaining as much as westerners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had similar thoughts after spending time in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2019. Felt light years ahead of us - and they've done it all in such a short amount of time. Really changes your perspective

I am Chinese. The thing is there's a LOT of labor. I mean everyone has a housekeeper. Everyone has a nanny. Labor can be found easily and thus, shit gets built in like a day literally I agree that it's impressive, I'm just saying from a practical perspective, it's not that hard to do when you have a zillion people working on a project anywhere, anytime Here in the US, labor is NOT easy. I am a professional corporate recruiter and yeah, it's not easy to hire for anything, from truck drivers to CPAs. People here have expectations.

Right? And I laughed when the PP said that workers are disposable in other countries. US is the champion at firing without cause.

That labor often doesn’t get paid well. And that ‘labor’ often gets treated very poorly. Same story in India.

Not a very robust OSHA to be found in China. Workers are seen as dispensable. As we saw what happened in Qatar.

Singapore runs on the backs of foreign workers too. The helpers and foreign laborers aren’t treated well. The foreign laborers were kept in virtual prison during COVID as they weren’t allowed to leave their dorms. It is awful.

As if Americans can speak out on this subject when the US imports millions of illegal workers from south of the border who work in slave like conditions for low pay. This is glass houses....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

I was also just in the UK and the locals there were all talking about how ashamed they were of the shambles their country was in….train strikes, border force strikes (which necessitated bringing in the British armed forces to step in at Heathrow) baggage handlers strikes, bus strikes, ambulance driver strikes, and nurses strikes all taking place simultaneously last month.

In Frankfurt, Germany where we flew on to it was taking on average over 2 hours to clear customs at the airport during the holiday period.

That’s great that you anecdotally had a smooth experience, but to universalize as if Europe isn’t also subject to extreme (and in my experience far more frequent) travel disruptions is ludicrous.

Europe really isn't that great overall compared to their counterparts in Asia. Asia's first world countries just work. Everything is on time and people do their jobs without complaining as much as westerners.

I should hope so, considering how new and shiny everything is.