High speed rail isn't for "advanced" countries. It's for TINY countries. The places where it's successful are generally the size of individual U.S. states with a very dense population. Germany's land mass is about the size of Montana, with a population density that is about triple that of California. Imagine shoehorning the populations of New York state, Texas, and California into Montana. That's Germany. Yeah, it's all about "advanced".
Countries like Germany have virtually no choice on things like high speed rail, because they simply can't build an automotive infrastructure that would be cost effective. They already have intricate mass transit in each major metropolitan area, which makes arterial connections between those places even more feasible.**
**This means when you take a high speed train between large European cities, you still have good transportation options available. In America, you're still pretty much stuck renting a car or taking taxis. Now factor in the exorbitant cost of train travel, coupled with the hassle of TSA, and voila, you have virtually no reason to ever get on a train.
It's easy to sit back and pretend that "High Speed" rail would work in America because it works other places but there are VERY limited applications in this country where it may work. It's silly to waste the time or money on it, given what Amtrak has already taught us.