>> we have a political system in which the federal government, having devolved virtually all decision-making power to states > That's definitely not true. Just

>> we have a political system in which the federal government, having devolved virtually all decision-making power to states > That's definitely not true. Just look at the ACA. The ACA devolves most power to the states, who run their own exchanges, including the ability to not participate at all. Compare that to other countries (which have much less expensive and more effective health care systems). > We can't build high speed trains because: (1) the government is corrupt, incompetent and beholden to interest groups and (2) the public doesn't really want them. I disagree on #1, at least in a relative sense. The US government is relatively clean compared to most, including others that build and manage train systems such as Russia and India. The problem, IMHO, is the demonization of government by a small group. Due to our political structure that small minority can block government from acting, bringing such gridlock that it can't even raise revenues or pay bills reliably. That reduces the general public's confidence in government's capacity to solve problems, not because something is generally wrong with government but because of the gridlock. Until we solve that problem, nothing else will happen.