"As longtime Japan watchers like Ivan P. Hall and Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr. point out, the fallacy of the “lost decades” story is apparent to American visitors the moment they set foot in the country. Typically starting their journeys at such potent symbols of American infrastructural decay as Kennedy or Dulles airports, they land at Japanese airports that have been extensively expanded and modernized in recent years.
William J. Holstein, a prominent Japan watcher since the early 1980s, recently visited the country for the first time in some years. “There’s a dramatic gap between what one reads in the United States and what one sees on the ground in Japan,” he said. “The Japanese are dressed better than Americans. They have the latest cars, including Porsches, Audis, Mercedes-Benzes and all the finest models. I have never seen so many spoiled pets. And the physical infrastructure of the country keeps improving and evolving.”
[WS:] This is indeed an excellent point worth repeating over an over again. If one were a casual observer of everyday life in different countries one would likely conclude that the Etats Unis is a second-world country - a few notches above the third world, but also a notch or two below Western Europe or Japan. One would have to read newspapers to learn that the Etats Unis is a superpower.
For traveled people, the choice is between what they see with their own eyes and what the authorities and the media are telling them. I have a feeling that I have been on that road before - in the 1970s crumbling Eastern European bloc.
Wojtek