Economic fundamentalism. Refusal to believe government can do anything right, simultaneously believing that business and markets can solve all problems for ever-growing profit. Non-profit operation by government vs. profit model. Without brakes put on by regulation, we are being drained by vampire gods of finance. That giant sucking sound your hear is our money going up and out, not stopping to build or fix anything before it disappears into the Caymans.
Example: Social Security administion costs are something like 1-3% of yearly intake. 401Ks and IRAs demand something like 5-10%. The difference? Sheer profit.
Profits that used to go to the customer in the form of investment in the business and better service and product, or dividends on company shares. That money is now taken out of the company and invested or hoarded elsewhere, anywhere but the company that made it. Conglomerates that buy power companies and cut maintenance drastically, boosting profit and stock price, until the blackouts predictably come. Private investors buying British Rail lines and immediately cutting maintenance costs, and soon came the derailments. There are no consequences for refusing to invest profits, and infinite wealth to be made anywhere but the business itself.
In the 70s, corporations moved from the dividend model, in which they paid shareholders part of the profits, to the new model in which they move the profits out of the company, to the joy of Wall Street which rewards them with higher stock prices. To keep the new model going, they don't require investment in infrastructure; they simply need to keep up the game of musical chairs, prompting people to buy stock on the sole hope that the price will eternally go up - which it can't - and pump all the profits into their own pockets and the accounts of Wall Street financiers. It's a scam, and we've lost our industries, can't build internet infrastructure, and are watching bubble after bubble swell and burst. Tax laws did most of this; they de-regged and sweetened disinvestment in plant on the say-so of the finance lords.
Change the tax laws, drag the money back from overseas, change the stock market model back to dividend payout instead of casino gambling. In short, stablize the financial model and kick out the silver-tongued thieves who built this up for the last 40 years. Mandate that corporations invest in their own businesses, rather than buy others. Mandate that, once and for all, they are creatures of the government, licensed and regulated, and exist for the purpose of employing the people of the nation which granted them the privilege of their sheltered existences. Oh, and nationalize the oil companies, as Norway did. Create a state bank for each state, as North Dakota did. Kick banks out of the stock market and derivatives, and mandate they do their damned jobs, which are to distribute the free money we give them from the Fed, not to make infinitely growing profit. In short, kick out the lying greedy sacks, and go back to 1965's model, when we could actually DO anything. Government didn't do this, the Chicago School of economics did. And oh yes, get rid of the voting computers and go back to hand counts, as Canada does, or you won't be able to vote up the sun rising in the east. No use wanting to change if the voting system is completely owned by the bastards who are destroying your economy. Without the ability to vote, your are playing with mud while the bosses laugh at you. If they aren't altering elections wholesale, they are surely doing it retail. And the future is not today; election alteration will be as common as slapping a bribe on a table used to be.