Failing Infrastructure; Show Me The Money:
Good Morning
In my opinion, Paul or Huckabee would make better presidents than any of the frontrunners on either side of the aisle; if for nothing more than being nicer guys and blatantly more honest. We can take the truth can’t we? Well maybe not.
I read this morning that American’s have huge expectation that the next president will lower the price of gas, fix all the roads and bridges, bring back the employment for Middle America, and return the great herds of buffalo to the plains. Oh, and provide free satellite TV and cell phone service.
Let’s talk about the roads and bridges. While we are at it, we’ll talk about all of the infrastructure such as water lines, gas lines, sewer lines, sewer plants, water plants, power plants and so on. All of these systems have been having birthdays every year that you did.
When people and infrastructure get old, they begin to wear out and need more maintenance. People go to the doctor and the hospital and it costs more than they made in their combined working life and therefore we have Medicare that is scheduled to be insolvent by 2019, after which it will run trillions of greenbacks in the red.
When infrastructure gets old, it begins to wear out and needs the same repair and maintenance. We go to the city, county, state and federal governments and demand these repairs. But unlike Medicare, they are already insolvent and running a whole lot of current red ink. Adding hundreds of billions for the needed repairs isn’t in the budget so to speak.
So where does the money come from to repair
Taxing the remainder of the already overburdened citizens has always been our governments answer, but that won’t work. The federal government is currently getting ready to send those people checks so that they can go to the mall or hang on to their homes.
Why do you think that our infrastructure is in the poor condition? No money and no ability to further raise taxes in an already failing economy would be my best guess.
The massive infrastructure in the
Repairing and rebuilding our national infrastructure with today’s inflated dollars, a shrinking job market, and an already overtaxed citizenry; may prove a virtual and mathematical impossibly. What do you think?
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Well, Mike, I’ll bite.
Is there an alternative to rebuilding crumbling infrastructure, other that just letting the whole nation and its citizenry go to hell?
If I understand Keynesian economic theory, a possible means of supporting rebuilding would be to borrow money. But, from whom? Seems like we already have unprecedented debt to other nations.
Another approach is already being employed, that is, selling the infrastructure to private or other sovereign nations. I’ve read that the Indiana turnpike has met this fate. I wonder if the voters of Indiana were given the choice between either paying for the upkeep and repair of a “common” like a roadway, or selling it and paying the private owner ever escalating “user fees?”
It would be interesting to have your question posed to the entire citizenry, and various alternatives considered. An awful lot of citizen education would be necessary to foster an understanding of the “commons,” that is investments that belong to everyone that are necessary for the well being of the nation.
I’ve made my comment to get the conversation going. I know that you have some very thoughtful commenters, and I’m hoping that they’ll bite, too.
Kathy
Kathy,
Thank you for commenting. You can see that other sites have picked up this article.
As I suggested in my book, the U.S. may have reached the point of diminishing returns. In other words, attempting to grow out of our mess will prove impossible and the bills incurred over time will not allow us to stay the same size.
A business that reaches this point sells it’s assets or files bankruptcy.
Selling the assets such as the Indiana Toll Road, results in moving the burden to indirect taxation. Fees such as those charged by our cities, counties and towns for previously provided services, are also indirect taxation.
Small towns are the most vivid example of failing infrastructure that cannot be funded with the exception of grants.
Many Americans believe that grants are free money, but once more are simply a tax based vehicle that must be paid by the multitude.
As we watch grants dry up due to insufficient tax collection, we will see the problem magnified as small towns are simply out of financial resources.
There is a limit, or resistance level to tax collection. Please see my article today.
Forming a massive new WPA style program is out of the question for the live and sane, we are already maxed out on government spending. But, I forecast that solution being trotted out soon. This isn’t 1932 and it will only make matter worse.
I would also like to hear from others! Thanks again Kathy. Keep the comments coming.
One person (Kathy, I believe) mentioned that they couldn’t understand users fees and tolls and charges for highways and other infrastructure. Forgive yourself, my dear, I complement your young age and hope you always keep a happy face-I mean that-no sarcasm-BUT-
The reason we are going this route (roads with holes or better roads) is because our great managers in DC have sucked every federal dollar out of the highway fund for, just the same as the Social Security Fund and Medicare, for other stuff, like war, buying votes, losing a trillion dollars in cash packed on skids and flown to Iraq, payoffs, new devices to spy on us.
The word is now: That foreign countries (I can only use initials here but you get the point -C, I, J, R, M, V, EU) ARE TALKING WITH DC ABOUT BUILDING OUR ROADS ETC FOR US ETC FOR SEWERS WATER ELECTRIC- and charging us tolls and charges which go back home for them. But since the dollar is now only a picture of G. Washington they are holding off to see how the investment climate is going to blow..they aren’t dumb enough to build a bridge to no where like us-they might not get overpaid.
Toodles,K