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I do. You can't underestimate the value of existing infrastructure. Which is the same reason I would say the US, China, and others will never be able to compete with the emergent virtual economy. Everyone is expecting the next dominant power to look like the previous dominant powers, but they never do.

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It's worth pointing out that we are not providing enough funding to maintain our existing infrastructure, while China is spending billions on improving theirs.

This is very true though I'm including the social infrastructure. Silicon Valley, NYC, D.C. will have infrastructural value, trusted pathways, despite what anybody does. It can shrink and grow but unlikely to happen fast as there's a practical cap to how fast humans will move or accept changes.

> ... emergent virtual economy.

Virtual economy, like in World of Warcraft? Not sure I follow. Is this a bitcoin reference?

I would consider WoW gold and Bitcoin to be mere tokens for the virtual economy. You can bind spatial terms to these tokens but those terms can be as optional as they are incidental to the exchange, we generally don't care where an exchange originates or terminates. Businesses trading internationally using ships and handshakes created the global economy, individuals trading internationally using sites and tokens created the virtual economy.

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