Thread by @bopinion

America is riddled with:

💰 corruption
🏗️ inefficient bidding
🏡 high land-acquisition costs
👷🏻‍♂️ overstaffing
🚧 regulatory barriers
🙅🏽‍♀️ poor maintenance

All of these inefficiencies add up to a country that has forgotten how to build bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

U.S. infrastructure is in a state of disrepair.

This raises a disturbing question: Is it possible for a rich, industrialized country to fall back into the middle ranks? bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

The U.S. is still a very rich nation compared to Germany, Sweden, Japan, Canada or Denmark.

But that wealth masks some glaring areas where the U.S. looks more dysfunctional than its peers, namely, construction costs, health care and housing affordability bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

The U.S.’s hybrid public-private health care system costs much more than other countries’ government-dominated systems.

Despite this lavish spending, the U.S. tends to get worse health outcomes bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

Five years ago, life expectancy, which is still rising in most other countries, began to fall in the U.S. 📉

Most countries have also seen declines in maternal mortality. But in the U.S., the rate has risen in recent years 📈 bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

Thanks in part to high construction costs and in part to restrictions on housing development, America is also facing a housing-affordability crisis bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

The list of U.S. dysfunctions seems never-ending:

💊 opioid abuse
📈 rising suicide rates
🚱 lead contamination
🚔 large prison population
🗡️ violent crime rate
🥫 widespread poverty and hunger bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

The fall in construction productivity and the rise in health costs suggest that inequality isn't the whole story here.

The U.S. is simply becoming less efficient along a broad spectrum of metrics bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

How long can this loss of efficiency go on without hurting America's overall wealth? Nobody knows.

If U.S. GDP does end up backsliding, it won't be the first rich country to do so in recent years. Italy has already traveled down that path 🇮🇹➡️ bloom.bg/2DVcYJe

The U.S. shouldn’t wait and see if current trends persist. Here's what needs to be done:

1) Reduce excessive costs in key industries
2) Improve public health
3) Increase density in cities
4) Upgrade public transit
5) Eliminate waste and corruption bloom.bg/2DVcYJe