We traveled to Singapore for a conference in 2022. It is a city that works. Everyone is housed. Crime is negligible. Public transit is fantastic and cheap. Traffic is minimal. Ethnicities coexist in harmony. Capitalism, harnessed by government to provide a better quality of life for everyone, is thriving. The old urban fabric is retained and used for real life, not tourism. And the streets are very, very clean. It is the fusion of capitalism under enlightened government control that has made much of Asia (and Northern Europe as well) gleam.

Returning home from SFO, as we looked out over the empty lots and graffiti covered buildings from the shabby seats of our BART car, America never seemed more derelict, dangerous and in decline.