Succeeding by Failing

Here's a letter to the New York Times:

The presumption is now widely shared that America's infrastructure is "crumbling" (Letters, Sept. 6).  Frankly, while I hardly believe that infrastructure in the U.S. is in ideal shape, I doubt that its condition is as dire as so many people now think it to be.  But let's grant the truth of the presumption.

Apart from supplying national defense, policing, and courts of law, there's no duty that people believe to be more central to the core role of...