We need to build some new stuff.

And by stuff I mean … roads, mass transit, airports, bridges, public buildings …

I’ve just been somewhere that, allegedly, only recently escaped Third World economic status.

And everything there is newer, shinier and, more important, works better and is easier to use than just about anything we have here in the allegedly wealthy and technologically advanced West.

I am envious. Really, it’s more than that. I’m embarrassed.

Beijing. New everything.  New, enormous airport terminal. With tons of space, lighting, shops. New highways. Smooth, and in good repair. An enormous city with a functioning mass transit system — and a wonderfully attractive one, on the newer lines. Hundreds of multistory buildings that clearly are less than 10 years old.

And I came home today to LAX, through the Bradley terminal, which is falling to pieces. And it’s the new part of the airport. Holes in the walls and ceilings, entire sections of passport control cordoned off for construction (repair?). A baggage-claim area that is laughably small.

Then I got onto freeways with holes in the concrete and returned to downtown Long Beach, where the building I live in is 80 years old — which makes it not much older than huge swaths of housing here in downtown L.B.

I couldn’t have traveled the 15 or so miles from LAX to Long Beach, via mass transit, because our light rail system doesn’t go to LAX. Incredibly.

It’s time for us to get busy. We need to reinvest in the basics of our civilization. Because our stuff is outdated. Not to mention falling apart. If it ever really worked in the first place.

Beijing puts us to shame. It put me to shame, anyway.

We may not see it, just going to work, day after day. But you get out of town, you look around, especially in Asia, and we’re falling behind. How can it not hurt our ability to attract tourists — let alone make us competitive in the world economy?

I’m not talking about a 90,000 capacity stadium, or all the great venues China built for the Games. This is about the basic underpinnings of our system that make possible our way of life. It’s time to get them fixed, improved or replaced entirely.