the in-seat charging outlets in the delta terminal at los angeles international aren’t working. it’s just one more thing.

when i plugged in my laptop, i can’t say i was completely surprised when the power indicator didn’t light up. after all, it’s a row of seats in an airport. it’s a minor convenience, but it is still there for a reason—however, this is america, so there’s no reason to expect they’d actually work.

not to compare a failed set of power outlets to crumbling infrastructure, but while trickle-down economics is a lie, trickle-down failure is not. there’s no reason to expect a power outlet to work in an airport in los angeles because we can’t even expect roads to be paved or the homeless to be treated humanely. when the upper echelons of power can get away with treating people as a whole with contempt, there’s no reason to think small offers of convenience would result in anything other than luck-of-the-draw.

this country doesn’t hold itself to any kind of standard—it’s an impossible ask when the national ambition is individual financial success. if we want bridges that don’t collapse or utilities to properly function, they must be paid for together and attended to systemically. this is not something that the united states historically excels at (outside of getting involved in bullshit wars).

regardless, i’m taking off to the east coast for a few days, where 90% of what i see—from the franchise restaurants to the cars on the road and the cops with their guns—will be the same. there will just be fewer palm trees. and i will keep my expectations to a minimum, because this is america, and there’s no reason to think that anything will actually work.