Infrastructure spending

wolfbinary

click[^] Are we behind or have we as a country just not kept up with it? It reminds me of the utility bill surcharges of 'infrastructure replacement' and the letter about the new charge. Isn't this something that should have been going on anyway and in the cost of the service?

Rob Graham

All of the D-'s are typically government services (some local, some not). Guess government hasn't been doing a very good job. You don't get elected by raising fees to insure the next guy's water pipes don't leak, but lowering fees by eliminating maintenance will always get you some idiot's vote.

Dan Neely

It's a long term lack of spending. We spent a bunchaton of money post-ww2 on bridges and the interstates. That massive slug of infrastructure's all reaching the end of its design lifetime, delaying preventive maintenance to balance budgets has only made it worse.

Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall

Oakman

wolfbinary wrote:

Are we behind or have we as a country just not kept up with it?

Yes. But don't worry. Right after the election Obama said that the focus of the stimulus bill would be infrastructure. And of the 870 billion dollars spending in the bill, almost 16% is going to it. Kinda makes you wonder if he meant f*ck us, not focus.

Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

wolfbinary

Oakman wrote:

Kinda makes you wonder if he meant f*ck us, not focus.

I'm beginning to wonder. I really hope not. I'm trying to stay objective. I'm pretty disappointed more of it isn't going to infrastructure, but then maybe we'll see more come out. I'm not holding my breath though.

Stan Shannon

I'm not sure I understand the problem. If we didn't have any infrastructure, we couldn't go anywhere. If we couldn't go anywhere we would not use as much energy. And if we didn't use as much energy, we could achieve energy independence and would no longer have to be mean to all the wonderful people we share the planet with. Our infractructure is what requires us to be mean to the rest of the world, after all, leaving them no choice but to try to kill us. Anything we can do to repair our international image could only make our lives better. All we really need is a national rail grid. We could apply to the federal governmetn for permission to buy a ticket (with sufficient lead time of course). That would give the government the ability to directly manage and track the movement of people, which people should have the greatest access, and all that.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Brady Kelly

Two young herls in Luverrpool get threrre phooto tehken. That's as far as I go, but one says to the other, "What's 'e doin'? "E's got ta focus" "Wot!? Both of us?"

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