Yes. Advanced countries value the support that superior infrastructure gives their economies, and invest for the future.

Those that don't fall back competitively.

The US used to have great infrastructure. Now?

There's infrastructure, and then there's "infrastructure." For example, I'm confident that lil' desk is thinking of the highways and bridges, for example, that the US has neglected to repair, much less upgrade, in recent decades. Those are the transit systems that sustain travel for all Americans. So are the regional and local transit systems, including rail, that cry to be brought into the 21st century.

However, and I can't stress this enough, high-speed rail, which is what Morris is talking about, is not for everybody.
Why high-speed rail advocates refuse to acknowledge this is way beyond me. If anyone, anywhere on this planet, wants to buy a train ticket, guess what the most expensive one is for? Yes, that's right: high-speed rail. Europe, Japan, China, EVERYWHERE, high-speed rail tickets are only for the affluent who can afford them. Don't believe it? Google it. Going by high-speed rail means going first-class. Where high-speed rail now exists, this is how the well-to-do travel; those on business expensive accounts, suits with laptops.

It amazes me that Republicans, who supposedly represent the rich, oppose HSR, while my fellow Democrats, who advocate for the other 99%, support this luxury train system. Building this system is outrageously expensive; just wait 'til the final tab comes in. (I can imagine that when they talk about the current $64 billion estimate back in the CHSRA offices, they all sit around laughing out loud.) But, you should know that this will be the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the US. Yet only the upper-middle and upper-classes will be able to afford this fancy ride.

In short, it's immoral/unethical to use the tax revenues we all kick in to build and operate a transit mode that will be available only to the few.

To conclude: High-speed rail is NOT a mass-transit public-utility the way buses and streetcars and roads and highways are. And those infrastructure examples are for everybody and therefore the government's (and our) business.