> Despite our superior technology, there are many things that Western countries could do in the past that we can’t today—e.g. rapidly build large-scale infrastructure, maintain low-crime cities, and run competent bureaucracies.
Which seems to be objectively false. There is a huge range in terms of infrastructure capacity, crime rate and bureaucratic competence in Western countries. Cities in the Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, Croatia, are among the safest in the world. Spain has doubled its amount of high-speed rail since 2010 to nearly 4,000km while the UK’s HS2 is a disaster. Nordic countries have very efficient, streamlined bureaucracy while Portugal or Italy are a Kafkaesque nightmare.
You start the curriculum with the following:
> Despite our superior technology, there are many things that Western countries could do in the past that we can’t today—e.g. rapidly build large-scale infrastructure, maintain low-crime cities, and run competent bureaucracies.
Which seems to be objectively false. There is a huge range in terms of infrastructure capacity, crime rate and bureaucratic competence in Western countries. Cities in the Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, Croatia, are among the safest in the world. Spain has doubled its amount of high-speed rail since 2010 to nearly 4,000km while the UK’s HS2 is a disaster. Nordic countries have very efficient, streamlined bureaucracy while Portugal or Italy are a Kafkaesque nightmare.