Decaying economies are bad if they don't maintain their equipment and live off what previous generations created. You could see that in East Germany. They creat

Decaying economies are bad if they don't maintain their equipment and live off what previous generations created. You could see that in East Germany. They created a lot of stuff in the 50s and 60s and then they kept using that equipment until it fell apart. Same for buildings.You can do that for a while but eventually things will fall apart. You could argue that public infrastructure in the US is following the same path to some degree.