I recently logged onto QQ - an instant messaging service used in China - to chat with my friends there. A travel agent I know had already logged on.
He told me he logged on through his laptop while riding in a taxi using his city's wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, network.
This friend of mine lives in +â-â+à-ôr+â-â-+mqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
+â-â+à-ôr+â-â-+mqi lies in one of the poorest regions of the country. But it has city-wide Wi-Fi.
I lived in Xinjiang for about half a year and visited +â-â+à-ôr+â-â-+mqi several times. Despite the dirt and grime, the city has experienced massive growth in the past few years - and it has Wi-Fi.
Meanwhile, according to an Oct. 3 AFP article, Google recently offered to install city-wide Wi-Fi in San Francisco, which is among this country's most affluent cities.
But +â-â+à-ôr+â-â-+mqi, lying in one of China's poorest provinces, has had it for a while.
As the People's Republic of China pulls ahead, America declines into Soviethood.
And Wi-Fi networks only begin to illustrate the problem.
The world's fastest train +â-¡- a magnetic levitation, or maglev, train capable of speeds around 270 mph - has been sending passengers from Shanghai to Pudong at high speeds since 2004.
According to an article published in March of last year in the China Daily, the country's official English-language newspaper, China has plans to build a maglev line from Shanghai to the nearby city of Hangzhou as well.
If built, the new line would compliment the fast, inexpensive and efficient rail service China already has.
Meanwhile, Amtrak crumbles.
When I was in China, however, I didn't travel by train. I took the bus, and I remember the roads generally being in excellent shape.
Meanwhile, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave our own road systems a grade of D in this year's Infrastructure Report Card - down from a D+ in 2001, according to a press release titled "America's Crumbling Infrastructure Eroding Quality of Life."
I have to ask: How does China pull ahead like this? Why doesn't the United States have maglev trains, efficient rail systems and roads with an overall grade of A+? Why don't we take Wi-Fi systems like +â-â+à-ôr+â-â-+mqi's for granted, rather than having to rely on private companies to build them?
The reason makes plenty of sense: The Chinese devote huge sums of money to developing their infrastructure; we don't.
We waste our money on corporate welfare and military adventurism, sucking funding like a tapeworm in the national intestine from long-term investment at home. We waste the little funding we have - thanks to Bush's stupid and shortsighted tax cuts and the war, which have turned our budget blood red.
The ASCE's report card says, "To remedy America's current and looming problems, ASCE estimates an investment need of $1.6 trillion over a five-year period from all levels of government and the private sector."
Few, it seems, want to confront the ugly truth: In the richest, most powerful country on the face of the Earth, the infrastructure is crumbling.
Instead of doing what China has done, we cut taxes to the rich and starve our government.
We send our men and women to die in Iraq to perpetuate our dependence on oil instead of sending them to college for free, like countries in Northern Europe do, so they can become professionals with something to offer society instead of becoming casualties.
If we did those things, maybe our universities could graduate as many engineers as China's universities - or at least half as many.
But don't worry. America is the greatest nation on Earth.
Just keep telling yourself that, and everything will be okay.
Write to Alaric at
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