The United States of America is host to:

* The forefront of IT engineering (Intel, AMD, Nvidia, IBM, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Micron, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Seagate, Western Digital, Cisco, etc.).

* The forefront of aeronautics and space engineering (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Electric, General Dynamics, Honeywell, SpaceX, etc.).

* The forefront of higher education for engineering (MIT, Caltech, etc.).

* The forefront of new engineering research and development (NASA, DARPA, the National Laboratories, National Science Foundation, etc.).

* Leaders in medical engineering (Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, etc.).

* The most powerful and capable military in the world, made possible by the vast above-mentioned engineering base and more.

You're more than likely reading and posting on HN using technologies engineered, either in whole or in part, by Americans. You're welcome.

As regards infrastructure upkeep, even Japan is suffering from insufficient upkeep of infrastructure to the point of crumbling; they simply aren't as infamous for them as America is.

I am sure none would claim that the US has not produced great things, but in an economy of world wide trade, even the US is very much dependent on foreign products.

Just for one high tech example, the most sophisticated chips in the computer you use (whether desktop, laptop or phone) are almost certainly produced in Taiwan, who in turn rely on high tech manufacturing equipment from Europe.

You're welcome, too! Isn't international trade a great thing?

The point I am making is that America knows how to execute and succeed with engineering, unlike Japan.

Look at Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory. Neglected and laid out to rot under Japanese hands, bought by Americans and immediately became one of the biggest names in NAND flash (and rightfully so as inventors of the damn thing).

Japan can't succeed if success looked at them straight in the eye, and I'm tired of it.

Kioxia isn't good example. Toshiba was failed on some industry like nuclear, but Toshiba NAND manufacturing was one of the best division. They invented NAND Flash and has been a top player. Toshiba should avoid bankrupt so they needed to sell superior division.

Japan's infrastructure is light-years ahead of America's.

It's not even close.

You can flex all the exceptionalism you want, reality won't change one iota.

There's barely electrical passenger train lines there, let alone high speed rail.