“Abundance” Is Not the Answer

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson think is wrong with the United States, you need look no further than California’s failed attempts to build high-speed rail. Since 1982, the state has been trying to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco with trains capable of traveling more than 200 miles per hour. Despite broad public support, decades of planning, countless studies, and tens of billions of dollars spent, hardly any tracks have been laid and the project may never come to fruition. How can the wealthiest and most technologically advanced state in the world’s leading superpower nation be so utterly inept? Why can it not do what China, Japan, and many European countries do—and do it better, faster, and more cheaply?