I was speaking with Architect William McDonough almost 20 years ago and he told me he was about to go to China where they were embarking on a project to build 20 ultramodern cities the size of New York in the next 20 years. In 1975 roughly 18% lived in an urban area. 20 years ago that number was roughly 30%, and today it sits at around 60% living in at least more than 100 cities with populations over 1 million and at least 10 cities larger than New York city.
During the last twenty years our government has pursued multiple wall street bailouts, spent trillions policing international hot spots, spent billions privatizing Prisons, Schools and Healthcare.  All of this done in the name of Capitalism, because we don’t want to be like China.
Unless , of course, we want to build a wall, suppress dissent with armed troops and hateful anti media propaganda and discriminate against those who the Emperor deems unfit for citizenship.
We are supposed to be a republic, not a democracy.
Republics are in opposition to rulership by a single person. All eligible citizens get equal say in decisions through elected representatives. Unalienable rights of individuals are protected by law to safeguard against a majority abusing the minority.
A republic is similar to a representative democracy except it has a written constitution of basic rights that protect the minority from being completely unrepresented or abused by the majority.
In a democracy, the community of people are considered to hold power over how they are governed. Kings and tyrants are seen as threats to the innate rights of the people. As such, all eligible citizens get equal say in decisions.
In a democracy, an individual, and any group of individuals composing any minority, have no protection against the power of the majority.
Neither republic nor democracy provides for Kings and Tyrants suppressing the will of the majority.  And the republic is SUPPOSED to protect the rights of everyone, not just those who support the current regime.
Yet here we are, hiding from a virus, helpless to halt the spread of corruption and waste in our society for at least another 6 months,
and hoping that we will somehow pass this test of our Republic and start looking to build our own ultramodern COMMUNITIES of tomorrow
so we can show China that our founding fathers understood the dangers of dictatorships and the real value of protecting EVERYONES right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.