<story><title>Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200211-why-are-so-many-old-companies-in-japan</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JoeAltmaier</author><text>Pretty negative? Water and sewage infrastructure can last 100 years in the USA. The company that makes commercial pumps for cities is still around, and called upon to recreate 80-year-old pumps to replace ones still in use under New York streets.&lt;p&gt;Our electrical grid is unparalleled in the world. Our phone&amp;#x2F;internet.&lt;p&gt;These things are not so wonderful in other countries (when they even have them at all).&lt;p&gt;What infrastructure, exactly, in the US is not functioning well?</text></item><item><author>ehnto</author><text>Oh boy did I have a comment brewing for you, before I realized you were being sarcastic!&lt;p&gt;There is something refreshing about the feeling of permanence I got when I was in Japan. There is so much old infrastructure that&amp;#x27;s still working, because it&amp;#x27;s maintained. In the west, we assume we&amp;#x27;ll be replacing pretty much everything within 5-10 years so why bother with upkeep, and who cares if it doesn&amp;#x27;t even function that well when you built it.</text></item><item><author>johnklos</author><text>(Slightly, but not completely sarcastic)&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;ve learned plenty from the United States, but they haven&amp;#x27;t learned that in order to succeed, others must fail. They should be trying harder to make these businesses succeed hard or fail. After all, life isn&amp;#x27;t about living - it&amp;#x27;s about how much we can accumulate at the cost of others.&lt;p&gt;They should also learn the Unites Statesian way of &amp;quot;going out of business&amp;quot; for the purpose of selling the old company&amp;#x27;s assets to a newly create company for pennies on the dollar while defaulting on debt and loans. Heck - many Hollywood companies do this from one film to the next!&lt;p&gt;Gah! These Japanese people are amateurs!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Raidion</author><text>I mean, I&amp;#x27;m a big fan and resident of the US, but it&amp;#x27;s accurate to say we&amp;#x27;re not doing the best job with our infrastructure.&lt;p&gt;We have a lot of trouble with aging bridges: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.artba.org&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;54000-american-bridges-structurally-deficient-analysis-new-federal-data-shows&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.artba.org&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;29&amp;#x2F;54000-american-bridges-stru...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;We have a lot of trouble with aging water systems: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;sections&amp;#x2F;thetwo-way&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;20&amp;#x2F;465545378&amp;#x2F;lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;sections&amp;#x2F;thetwo-way&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;20&amp;#x2F;465545378...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;bipartisanpolicy.org&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;BPC-Aging-Water-Infrastructure.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;bipartisanpolicy.org&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;BPC-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;A lot of the infrastructure that were built around the population boom post WWII are reaching the end of their lifespans and we don&amp;#x27;t have a plan and budget (despite &amp;#x27;infrastructure week&amp;#x27;) to get these upgraded.</text></comment>
<story><title>Japan has 33k businesses at least a century old</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200211-why-are-so-many-old-companies-in-japan</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>JoeAltmaier</author><text>Pretty negative? Water and sewage infrastructure can last 100 years in the USA. The company that makes commercial pumps for cities is still around, and called upon to recreate 80-year-old pumps to replace ones still in use under New York streets.&lt;p&gt;Our electrical grid is unparalleled in the world. Our phone&amp;#x2F;internet.&lt;p&gt;These things are not so wonderful in other countries (when they even have them at all).&lt;p&gt;What infrastructure, exactly, in the US is not functioning well?</text></item><item><author>ehnto</author><text>Oh boy did I have a comment brewing for you, before I realized you were being sarcastic!&lt;p&gt;There is something refreshing about the feeling of permanence I got when I was in Japan. There is so much old infrastructure that&amp;#x27;s still working, because it&amp;#x27;s maintained. In the west, we assume we&amp;#x27;ll be replacing pretty much everything within 5-10 years so why bother with upkeep, and who cares if it doesn&amp;#x27;t even function that well when you built it.</text></item><item><author>johnklos</author><text>(Slightly, but not completely sarcastic)&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;ve learned plenty from the United States, but they haven&amp;#x27;t learned that in order to succeed, others must fail. They should be trying harder to make these businesses succeed hard or fail. After all, life isn&amp;#x27;t about living - it&amp;#x27;s about how much we can accumulate at the cost of others.&lt;p&gt;They should also learn the Unites Statesian way of &amp;quot;going out of business&amp;quot; for the purpose of selling the old company&amp;#x27;s assets to a newly create company for pennies on the dollar while defaulting on debt and loans. Heck - many Hollywood companies do this from one film to the next!&lt;p&gt;Gah! These Japanese people are amateurs!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ilikeathechacha</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.fhwa.dot.gov&amp;#x2F;bridge&amp;#x2F;nbi&amp;#x2F;no10&amp;#x2F;condition18.cfm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.fhwa.dot.gov&amp;#x2F;bridge&amp;#x2F;nbi&amp;#x2F;no10&amp;#x2F;condition18.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;s&amp;#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&amp;#x2F;asce-gives-us-infrastructure-a-d-2017-3%3famp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;s&amp;#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&amp;#x2F;asce-gi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Flint_water_crisis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Flint_water_crisis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Politicians like cutting ribbons in their district. They do not like investing in maintenance, and operators are left to scrape together budgets to make things work. They often make bad calls because they’re forced to.&lt;p&gt;This has been known for several decades.&lt;p&gt;The electrical grid in San Jose failed dramatically because someone, yet to be identified, hit a substation off 101 with a rifle. Power engineers constantly warn about incoming failures if we don’t invest in security and maintenance, and power grid security has recently become a Homeland Security concern. The power grid in California has evolved into literally killing people, and they have to turn it off when it’s windy. Yeah. Unparalleled. Your mildly xenophobic subtext of knocking power grids in non-American contexts is noted, but throwing stones and all.&lt;p&gt;I struggle to imagine a scenario where all of this is news to you.</text></comment>