For comparisons, we always need a reference point. I believe your reference point is where you currently reside in America. And the misery described in the article may not be as bad as you think given that as your reference.

I probably don't travel within the U.S. as much as you do, but I've traveled to a lot of places, mostly large coastal cities, so I don't know what it's like for those in more rural and less developed parts of America, like the South. However, I've traveled abroad a little bit or have known people that have been to some very different places: Japan, China, Switzerland, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Argentina, Brazil, etc. If you've been to San Francisco recently, our transportation infrastructure is functional, but old, dirty, and not very timely at all. Some of the stations are filled with homeless and the mentally-ill alike. We don't have enough public restrooms, so they defecate on the streets. I don't know how long it takes to repair roads in your town, but road projects here take a very long time to complete and seem to be done only during daytime hours which is the least convenient for commuters. Compare this to Japan where the streets are clean, people don't walk and people receive apologies for a train that departs early by seconds: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42009839.

I bring all this up, because I feel like we only compare ourselves to ourselves. We seem to have this idea that America is still the best at most of the things that we do. I feel like American ingenuity is lost. What is America producing that we and the rest of the world want? Some of our software that can only exist because we have some great infrastructure in place that allow people to kickstart a business easily and perhaps our entertainment, but I don't see much else.

I'm an Asian-American in my 30s, born and bred in San Francisco. I actually grew up in the inner-city. What that entails is a run-down and under-funded school system made up of all minorities with the exceptions being a few teachers that dared step foot in an urban school in an undesirable part of town.

Have you ever asked yourself or took a look at how the friends in your circle came to be? I ask this only because our social circles are cultivated. We all make choices along the way that shape those that we are surrounded by either by choice of school, employment, geography, or other things. I always say to people when we watch sports, "we're watching the same game, but we can come away with completely different interpretations of what transpired or what is actually happening".

Major cities like San Francisco and New York are made up of transplants. I do software in San Francisco. It's funny when people tell me that San Francisco is "diverse" or when they ask, "where are all the SF natives?". It may be diverse because you see a lot of people of different colors, but in San Francisco, most people of the same color hang out with those that share their skin color. That alone could be telling of how highly cultivated our social circles are. Transplants working in tech in San Francisco are usually of a few backgrounds: white or Asian and highly educated. It is devoid of any significant representation from Hispanic/Latino-Americans or Black/African-Americans and I should also mention other Asian-Americans from backgrounds not Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, like Laotian, Vietnamese, Cambodian. People hardly ever ask me why, but being somebody that went to school with all of the above minorities, I have a fairly good idea, as some of them are formerly friends of mine that whose lives I can peer into on social media. I'm able to infer what their lives are like based on the questions they ask and the things that they think or have discussions about. I can also infer what their socio-economic status is based on these things. What I know, think, and care about compared to them are completely different. I was fortunate enough to attend one of the top universities in the nation. We lead completely different lives and my income is probably several multiples of theirs. That said, despite being in one of the wealthiest nations, we are a country that sees the least economic mobility between generations, save for a few. I introspect my life from time to time and I can glean from my own observations that my social circle is made up of more and more successful people. Some would call it diverse on the basis of ethnic background/color of someone's skin, but if the basis was upbringing and environment, it's probably not very diverse.

While I'm Asian-American and on the outside I may look like my fellow Asian-Americans in tech, very few people understand that I know many Asian-Americans that have dropped out of school and working dead-end jobs with no ladder. I consider myself very lucky and fortunate.

When you or I travel, we don't visit areas of despair or less desirable parts of town do we? I know I don't, so do we really get the complete picture?