Hate to break it to ya. Almost everything in America is fucked. We just don’t see it in our day to day lives.
Trains
Everything about trains and railroads
That's basically John Oliver's entire show, and HBO just renewed his contract for three more years because he has plenty of topics for those three years and more. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/last-week-tonight-renewed-through-2026-hbo-1235712430/.
I will answer your question. Many years of privatization of critical infrastructure and tax breaks for lobbyists (and elites) is why everything in the USA is fucked. Remember the HUGE amount of money we gave Verizon to update their ISP and they did stock buy backs instead!? That was because dumb ass Congress let it happen. They didn’t even go after the money. Shit like that for 40 years and having dumb as shit parents who throw up their hands every time they need to stand up for themselves or their children for that same amount of time really puts things into perspective.
We have been getting literally ROBBED for 4 decades. They have been stealing tax dollars and covering it up in unenforceable bills.
We do see it everyday we just don’t think about it. Your homes are literally running on ancient tech. Just because it has a smart screen doesn’t mean it’s post-modern tech. It’s not. It’s the same pos fridge now with a shiny screen and some chrome that you are paying 4 TIMES what that crap box is worth.
I feel like most folks just haven’t been around long enough to realize how the parents of the 80’s and 90’s fucked the country.
Dumb ass Congress receives bribe payments from Verizon. It's not even illegal or something they attempt to hide.
And it's not even all that much money. For the SOPA ordeal the telecoms were only paying a few grand per politician.
It's as much the threat of opposition, too. "Can't piss off the telcoms, or they will fund my opponent."