Yes I have and your statement is correct. Amtrak is almost entirely dysfunctional but rail as a concept is not dysfunctional and actually works in many other countries.
It's like healthcare, which is an absolute shitshow in the US, however in the rest of the developed world it's not a shitshow.
Likewise with the military.
What is it about the US that makes so many fundamental services needed for the functioning of society into shitshows?
Healthcare might be the same thing. US residents pay a lot for healthcare, and that's used to fund healthcare research. Then the products of that research are given to other countries without them having to pay much.
Ukraine has proved that's not true for US-friendly countries facing US-hostile foes, which is essentially the optimal scenario short of actual formal alliance, so I don't think that actually is a plausoble explanation except possibly for formal US allies.
And the US did provide substantial aid to the Ukraine. The US has provided over $1.5 billion to Ukraine. How much did Germany provide?
Philippines have already kicked USA military out of all the various bases they had built there. (No one who knows a bit of history was surprised by that.) RoK will eventually spend more resources supporting DPRK than menacing it, and they might very well kick USA out in the next decade. Korea fairly exemplifies the situation of nations who might consider USA military "assistance". Their current situation is far from what they would consider ideal, even if worse could be imagined. They could keep militarizing more and more, running to stand still, but that won't be tenable forever. We're told to fear change, but the change that the militarists really fear is more peace.
Source: https://www.csis.org/analysis/not-contributing-enough-summar...
> In a speech to French ambassadors in Paris, Macron said “Europe cannot rely on the United States only for its security. It’s up to us to meet our responsibilities and guarantee our security, and therefore European sovereignty.”
Nobody has decided that "human life can ... be more peaceful" without military superiority. Now that Trump has given Europeans reason to be skeptical about America's commitment, there is already a push to build up Europe's military forces. Macron will increase defense spending by 35% over six years, reversing a decade of decline: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-defence/france-com...
https://www.euronews.com/2019/04/29/eu-countries-increase-mi...
Ukraine is not a particularly good counter-example of that theory. First, Trump is the first U.S. President to exhibit some isolationist tendencies since Carter. But European disinvestment in defense has been going on since the USSR collapsed. Second, Ukraine is a former USSR country with a complicated history with Russia. It's not indicative of whether the U.S. would come to the defense of a real U.S. ally.
I'd really like to see a source for that, because that's far from obvious to me. I could see that being true for pharmaceuticals, but then there's a lot more to health care than just drugs.
In the US, health care seems more like the Parkinson's law of the economy: health care costs expand to suck up much (most?) of the economic surplus that results from any improvements in overall productivity.
The sweet spot for rail seems to be journeys of 100-300 miles... lots of even major US cities don't have another major city in that radius.
I've got Denver, SLC... where else?