I think this is best illustrated in the pathological US need for every level of the entire infrastructure stack to be revenue positive. The recent whinging abou

I think this is best illustrated in the pathological US need for every level of the entire infrastructure stack to be revenue positive. The recent whinging about the post office is a great example. Further, people asking "whos going to pay" for trains demonstrates the lack of complex thinking. By way of counter example: the Japanese have figured out how to value the high speed train network by how much business it enables every year as opposed to simply looking at how much it costs vs ticket revenue. This isn't, of course, to imply that somehow Japan is magically better. Just that countries like France and China who have less decrepit, more complete public infrastructure didnt get there by accident.