Yes, I live in Europe but not every city here has the public transport infrastructure of London/Berlin or the cycling infrastructure of Amsterdam/Copenhagen so this meme of "everything in Europe is so good" needs to stop. How you perceive the transport system as a tourist is different than when you actually have to live and work somewhere long term.
Sure, the public transport system in my city is probably better than the one in the US but because the city is so widespread and low density(think L.A.), pretty much everyone who doesn't live and work in the city center is commuting by car because otherwise you're looking at hours hopping through slow buses/trams to get somewhere.
>A lot of work can't be done remotely. Not everyone works in software.
Yes, not everyone is a programmer but they aren't the only ones who can work remotely, lots of office jobs can be remote as well if the companies would adjust for that.
>No, what governments need to do is build good infrastructure.
Yes, governments need to build infrastructure, but that stuff is highly costly, funds are limited and it takes a lot of time to build due to politics and NIMBYism whereas switching to remote would be a much faster way to relieve slack on existing infrastructure until more gets build.
Let's assume that 20% of jobs can be done remote, that would free up a lot of traffic, living and office space for the people who have to commute.
>China sure has no problems building clean and effective subway systems. The ones in Germany and Japan are pretty great too.
As opposed to democratic countries, China is an outlier, the party has funds and can build infrastructure wherever it wants without public opposition.
Japan and Germany have build their subways decades ago when the economy was good and infrastructure was cheaper. Lots of cities in Europe, and I assume in the US as well, have grown so much that they are in desperate need of a subway system, but now is a bad time, the economy is crap and infrastructure is expensive.
