> bureaucracies in East Asia and Continental Europe tend to be better-staffed and more empowered to make professional decisions Not from what I've seen. The hi

> bureaucracies in East Asia and Continental Europe tend to be better-staffed and more empowered to make professional decisions Not from what I've seen. The highway I drive every day is in the middle of an extensive refurbishment. The local government (I currently live in Europe) was given the option of shutting it down for a month, which was completely untenable, but in line with what I think the author was trying to get at. They were also given the option of keeping it running at full capacity and doing the construction work over a several year period. They chose the latter, for obvious reasons, at a significantly higher cost, since the highway has to be rebuilt and demolished several times over to keep all lanes of traffic moving at all times. The difference between here and the states is not the level of empowerment or the level of staff competence. They simply have a lot more money to work with, which lets them build to a higher standard of quality, do preventative maintenance on time, and refurbish or outright rebuild when it becomes necessary to do so.