Talk About Tennis 2.0

Some tweets re President Biden's press conference:

More excerpts

Continued:

Continued:

What does it even mean 13th on infrastructure?

Suliso wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 6:39 pm What does it even mean 13th on infrastructure?

I guess we're ranked 13th in terms of qualify of infrastructure?

Full POTUS quote re the politics of governing:

There must be many ways to measure where you stand in infrastructure. % of GDP spending, Gross Spending, etc. Whichever way you see it, being 13th in the world, when the largest economic group in the world is called the G7, makes you sound pretty bad.

I think being 13th out of 200+ countries in anything positive is fantastic. Assuming of course it's measured per capita not in absolute terms.

Regardless of the numbers, when you go to the USA you can see that infrastructure facilities are not being properly kept or even maintained. Coming to the USA from Europe, for example, makes you wonder where does the mighty dollar goes. The sole airport that I would consider reasonable in the USA is Houston; I recently had to go through LAX and it is shameful. Compared to Hong Kong, Singapore or Malaysia, JFK is a dump. Even a small airport like Copenhagen beats any American airport hands down.
Germans would laugh (or already do) at American highways. The USA basically has no train's infrastructure, other than freight, anywhere that is not the North East corridor.
Of course, in comparison to S. America or Africa, the USA is alright. But that is not a benchmark you want to use. I do wish I would have American highways here in Colombia but, when I go to Europe and drive in a proper highway, I see the difference.
Plus: remember that Americans do frequently break into "We are #1!" chants. In infrastructure, chanting "we are #13!" does not have the same ring.

I drove on American highways last time in late 2019. They are not as good as the ones in Switzerland, but considering the size of the country perfectly serviceable. You do have a point about airports, those are lousy indeed.