If there is one way to measure the decline of a civilization, it is through the condition of its infrastructure. And using that as the primary measure, one would have to conclude that the United States is definitely a nation in decline. What is particularly surprising is that, in an era of unbridled capital fabrication from thin air, the country’s decrepit government apparatus can’t cobble together enough to even maintain the streets of the nation’s biggest cities. That suggests a nation on the precipice of moral as well as financial bankruptcy.
Under the utterly false banner of balanced budgets, the cost of moving everything from hogs to bacon to bacon is on the rise, as transportation costs rise in line with increased repairs, longer transit times, and diminished fuel efficiency.
America’s obsession with cost cutting and budget balancing is having an unintended yet completely predictable outcome: the infrastructure of United States cities and the transportation corridors that connect them are deteriorating more rapidly than they are being repaired or maintained.
Los Angeles, for example, is looking at a $15 billion estimated cost just to fix water and sewer mains that are currently broken, and gushing water and sewage into LA’s streets.
The country as a whole needs to spend $3.6 trillion by 2020 to maintain the existing quality of infrastructure, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The economic cost of not repairing, rebuilding and resurfacing everything from pipelines to highways and bridges will likely far exceed the maintenance cost cited above in insurance claims and lost transportation efficiency.
But the big question is, where will that money come from?
The obvious answer – borrowing – presents the unfortunate inconvenience of forcing politicians to concede that balancing the budget and reducing debt are not realistic. $3.6 trillion just to continue treading water does not constitute responsible national stewardship. So if the cost to maintain the status quo is so high, the intelligent exercise would be to identify the sum that would both cover extant needs plus the investment required to eliminate the lost opportunity costs that will if no investment in future volumes is obtained.
