A few years ago, i was walking down the street in one of Manila's poorer neighborhoods when I came upon a gaping hole where a sewer grate used to be. It was an experience doubtless familiar to many who have traveled in the Third World: someone had presumably looted a humble-but essential-piece of the city's infrastructure. It brought home to me not only what a robust infrastructure we take for granted in the West, but also how easily it can erode.

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