re: #307 Vicious Babushka

Wait, she stayed at a motel and was complaining about the service because it wasn’t up to the level of say the DC Grand Hyatt? Really?

She’s right that the infrastructure around the nation has gone to crap. We build and forget that building stuff requires regular and periodic maintenance. It even means having to replace and rebuild stuff better as new technologies come along.

The GOP is strangling the government’s ability to maintain the basic stuff of infrastructure. And that means big plans (even the misguided Musk hyperloop) wont get done because they require lots of money.

Let’s just forget that it cost billions to build the national highway system, and that system is approaching the end of its design life (and in many cases already surpassed it by a significant margin).

Highways and bridges and tunnels alone can’t get everyone to their destination. Airports and air traffic control systems need upgrades that have been in the works for years and still not fully implemented.

High speed rail has been long sought, especially on the NEC, and yet starved of money despite its necessity and ability to take the load off the overburdened air traffic system in the Northeast.

Oh, and who’s fault is it that the owner of the hotel put profits over all else, including hiring people to fill various jobs that she complains about not being filled?

The GOP is busy blaming Obama for Obamacare being the reason hiring isn’t happening, or businesses are shifting costs to avoid hiring, but that ignores that businesses have long put profits over employee well being, including their health.

If they didn’t have to provide health care benefits (and the tax code includes benefits to businesses that do), they wouldn’t. Same with paid sick leave and other employee protections.

Some businesses are more attuned to employee well being and pay better wages, but they are in the minority. That has to change, but there’s no easy solution. It has to take a different mindset in the business community that paying better wages means more productivity, better performance, and can stimulate the economy since the money goes back into buying some of the very products being offered.