> "People especially here constantly rail against Europe"
> "our cities"
Where is "here" and "our cities"?
> "our cities"
Where is "here" and "our cities"?
/s/public transportation/health care/cars/etc.
edit: For some perspective, there are 240,000 water main breaks every year in the US, wasting over 2 trillion gallons of treated drinking water.
https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/drinking-w...
A smaller nation can choose a solution that works better at smaller scales, but doesn't scare well - because they don't need it to scale much. A larger empire has fewer options.