America’s crumbling infrastructure: It’s not a sexy problem, but it is a scary one.
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with our congess, dont expect much, or you will be disappointed.
Maybe Koch Industries will get into road repair. Then Congress will wet themselves rushing to pass an infrastructure bill, probably with union labor prohibited.
This is the obvious solution: http://www.executivegov.com/2015/01/obama-seeks-private-sector-partnerships-to-fund-infrastructure-work/
The rich will be able to use the money they get to repatriate tax free to buy bonds that are tax free so they won’t even have to park profits offshore.
It will take only one more bridge to collapse, or road to disappear in a sink hole, for the ranking of the USA to go from 18 to 35. Does it matter to anyone? Of course not! Everybody’s gone fishing! “Does a collapsing bridge make a sound if there’s no one to hear it?” Whoever is underneath the bridge will never tell! If only the voting public would go on vacation abroad more often and see billiard-smooth highways, road signs without (bullet-) holes or rust, smooth concrete pillars without rust coming through or cracks going top-to-bottom, enjoy 4G internet at $30/month, airports which are actually a pleasure to go to, public transportation which takes you from the airport to the center of town in no-time at bargain prices, experience a storm without a flicker in the electricity .
Ahhhh, the joy of a good infrastructure!
But but aren’t they run by dirty Socialists? Don’t they give free stuff to loafers (i.e. non-managers)? Don’t they take your GUNS away? (Oh! The horror!)
Nice to see John Stewart’s protege do so well, and skewer sarcastically so many topics that need exposing broadly & widely. Sadly, he’s on HBO–$19+ a month just for his shows? Hmm… Anyways, spot on, for the ideology of the cranky, angry “Right,” to say nothing of the “Big-Dig-Boston-Wasteful” infrastructure projects, our country still needs remarkable amounts of infrastructure spending, replacement, maintenance, etc.
Both commenters above are spot-on. I still like the whole idea of, if you’ve got over $10,000,000 in assets, a 1% additional wealth tax is assessed, and aimed only for infrastructure/Highway Trust Fund spending.
I can dream…
John Oliver the successor of Jon Stewart ?
Edward Norton has long been involved with environmental and housing philanthropy. It is good to see he is moving into infrastructure, not that it should require charity.
I think the big issue that the US really needs to come to grips with is defining who is actually responsible for infrastructure? Federal, state, local? Should it be something where many of the crazy unfunded mandates on local government should be backed off so their tax dollars can be focused on local infrastructure? (Example: In NY nearly all of a county’s property tax goes back to the state to cover Medicaid). should it just be major cross-country arteries and military base connections that get federal highway funding with everything else local and state? In effect not raising the federal gas tax for over 20 years is forcing federal funding to this position. However, have the states and local governments internalized this? This type of discontinuity extends across all of the major infrastructure areas.
We are clearly spending the money…it just seems like we aren’t spending it on the right things. In CA we have spent nearly $1 billion on studies and planning for the central valley train. Most of the carbon tax funds are being spent there…and a huge portion of the state’s borrowing capacity is going to be needed to actually build it. By far most citizens are impacted by commute and inner city travel (roads, lights, etc.), but funding for those is being siphoned off to do “new” exciting projects that don’t solve a problem.