The problem is that Democrats with the ‘Build Back Better’ program wanted to spend more money on social programs than on infrastructure. They focused on helping disadvantaged communities instead of building real roads, bridges, power lines, and communication lines. The push back against ‘Build Back Better’ was against the need to expand social programs.

I heard a similar story about American aid to Africa. America is providing huge amounts of aid to Africa, but mostly social programs. Meanwhile China is building roads, bridges, hospitals, and airports in Africa. It appears to the average African that China is doing much more to help Africa develop, when actually the U.S. spends much more money.

The U.S. is not in decline economically (yet). It has simply moved from an Industrial economic base to a Postindustrial one. This shift is going from concrete things to more abstract forms of capital. It is not yet clear how this Postindustrial economy will play out. Maybe we will be buying our bridges from China while our economic base will come from Apple, Google, and Facebook.