i am constantly amazed how shabby the financial infrastructure in the united states is. arguably at the bottom of the list of the civilized world. some data points

• transactions based on checks
• low quality bills that invite counterfeiting (making the higher denominations unusable)
• the inability to process international credit cards at many locations

there are more indications, such as the absurd reliance on debt financing, but lets not go there.. i am all the more amazed that you can build the largest economy in the world on top of that.