re: #273 lawhawk

So, this morning NRO decided to complain that we are spending too much on infrastructure.

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Let’s dig into this a bit more, shall we?

America has a sprawling infrastructure, a significant portion of which was built in the 1950s as part of the Interstate Highway System. Many components of that system have are now functionally obsolete or have run up against their design lives. So, they require replacement, rehabilitation, and significant expenditures to keep them from collapsing.

A functional infrastructure improves economic vitality of regions, speeds goods to markets, and can have significant economic benefits far beyond just the jobs created for those projects.

But maintaining what we already have is just a part of the infrastructure picture. We need to build more rail capacity in certain parts of the country to handle higher populations. Some of those projects are expensive. The 2d Avenue Subway by itself is a multibillion dollar project that would move nearly 200,000 people a day for just the phase 1 portion. Now imagine how the full line would operate (from 125th street to Hanover Square); it would move more than 500,000 a day. Phase 1 costs over $4 billion.

That’s just one part of the region’s infrastructure projects.

There’s the scandal-ridden Pulaski Skyway project that was funded by the Port Authority, which will cost more than $1 billion.

The cancelled ARC tunnel was a $8 billion funded project (though overruns would probably have pushed it north of $10 billion) - all to move hundreds of thousands of people daily.

East Side Access is another multibillion dollar project, which wont be finished for another decade.

Those are just in NYC.

There are major highway projects across the nation, HSR in California, road and bridge projects that need to replace aging bridges and structures.

Heck, the backlog on Amtrak alone is over $100 billion for the NEC alone. That would eliminate bottlenecks in places like NYC, Baltimore, New Jersey, speed limitations throughout, and improve service nationally.

Likewise, infrastructure includes airport improvements - billions need (and are) being spent on airport improvements that passengers see like terminals, but billions more are needed to upgrade ATC systems to make a safer, more reliable, and more accurate system (which would also make it cheaper for airlines that could route planes more directly to save them fuel costs and reduce time in the airports waiting to land or takeoff, etc.)

Then, there’s the forgotten infrastructure - electric, sewer, and water distribution. Again, billions need to be spent to upgrade water purification, distribution, and treatment nationally.

NRO, and Geraghty argue that this is overblown? Seriously?

But we’re supposed to take the Keystone jobs claims on their face as being the key to creating jobs nationally?

What a bunch of hooey.

Infrastructure is necessary for trade.

Without secure and working infrastructure goods cannot be gotten to market on time and intact.

Love how the short-sighted so called Capitalists seem to understand this.