The last few months, I've started to really notice how shit the quality of most buildings and infrastructure is in the US. I know a lot of people in the construction industry and grew up in it, and it's really just amazing how everything is built to maximize short term appearance and minimize cost. EVERYTHING, even ostensibly "luxury" housing, is built this way. I used to live an apartment building that was only a few years old but when you looked at the details you could already see the thing was falling apart. I've seen roads get resurfaced only to see a bunch of cracks and pot holes show up the next winter.
So as America enters terminal decline, I fully expect the buildings and infrastructure around us is just gonna fall apart and look hideous. Especially the suburbs. I feel like most suburbs are held together with paper mache and veneer. And of course Americans will deny it's happening and pretend it's totally fine.
I want to learn to build my own home. I used to work in construction briefly and thought that'd be a good primer of where to start but everything was put together so shitty and with the cheapest of materials. It didn't teach me so much as it made me realize that literally everything in the US is just thrown together by the lowest bidder as quickly and as cheaply as possible. It gives me anxiety driving over any type of bridge or suspension or overpass knowing that at any point it could collapse due to the negligence in building it and the cost cutting measures in order to maximize profit for the companies behind it.